three million that is the number of children reported each year as victims of abuse and neglect in the united states hello my name is for joe carp and fundraiser for the washington county care costs of the kids over three hundred of these children a living here in washington county and declared dependent in the juvenile system these children need your help to give them a voice in the court system and to speak up for their best interest currently casa volunteers court appointed special advocates advocate for only eighty nine of those three hundred children volunteers are trained to work as fact finders then write reports for the judge prior to a hearing working as that extra set of eyes and ears the goal of the casa program would be to have a casa advocate the each child who's experienced abuse and or neglect in washington county the casa staff provide supervision and individual support for the volunteers  advocating for these abused and neglected children throughout the year casa kids hold fund raising events to help generate funds to an able the organization to continue training community volunteers so that they can advocate for the best interest of these children april is child abuse prevention month this year we will be holding our annual spring gala fundraiser chef for casa april twentieth at bellisario event then you it will be  year with your help and support we can continue to find stability in these children's lives so that they can lead normal productive lives my guest today other ships and owners who are also a concern community members themselves who have taken the time out of their busy schedule to be with us they will be talking about the restaurants they represent as well as the menu for the event we're also fortunate to have with us lynn silvis who is case manager for the washington county chapter class of the kids as well as a staff member and casa volunteer herself allow me to introduce our ships to casa first we have joshua horwitz executive chef of  nowinski head shifts of the keno restaurant day tim one owner of box from house bakery and of course with me today to a lot of the building itself we're working on an outdoor patio seating area for springtime which would be really nice we also cater to corporate events and banquets and things of that nature as well as just personal burgers and fries we're talking about really good food and so you know it wasn't the you the ship we wouldn't be able to have this event so again i can't thank you enough now it is third year with you third year plus in peter's township yes yes i love your story thank you because it's a family story so please share it well we are a family business my mother and father started business with it and we just decided that small scale community was the way that our business is best represented so we opened bartrum house in two thousand and eight we're successful because we embrace the community and the community embraces us absolutely that's why in general we're so happy to support such a positive program such as casa because the community  gives to us and we'd be fools not to give back in return great attitude well it isn't that it's just not marketing it's just not blowing smoke to the community as well obviously you don't have to market anymore you're right because you're already successful you're doing this but it  of the goodness of both you and denise yeah but it's community everything that we all do as businesses it's all part of community yes and that's why success comes besides the fact that your food is delicious for you to explain you know i do the fun stuff the fundraising it really is fun you get down to the nitty gritty of the scene you know you're a volunteer yourself so can you explain to people out there what exactly a volunteer do you know i'd be happy to volunteer come to our organization because they want to help children and we train the volunteer to advocate for abused and kids in the juvenile court system children that are due to kid a dependent which means that the cases of abuse neglect are severe enough that the children have to be supervised by the courts c y s is involved children and the services in washington county application and then they're interviewed and then they go through thirty hours worth of training where we will cover a variety of different topics things that they're going to come up with come up against we'll talk about drug and alcohol abuse and mental mental health issues we'll talk about different things that happen to the children we'll talk about domestic violence so there's a lot of different things that we talk about we talk about how the law works in the in the area of involved in almost all aspects of the children's lives what what basically we're working towards is writing a report to the court on what is happening in the children's lives so we are assigned to a case  volunteer is assigned to one case and that means one family so that they can devote as much time as possible i am waiting till it's resolved until it's resolved if are they get another case and then they can get another case if they choose to take another case  typically we estimated about eighteen months that cases are open but some can be open much longer and some can be open much shorter period of time depending on the the rate of improvement in the lives the goal is to get them into a placement and optimally you want them to be back with their own family because family is family and families important to most of these children no matter what typically no matter what the case of abuse neglect they have suffered and some of these kids have suffered serious serious abuse and neglect they typically want to be back home with their parents so that's always the first goal but if casa volunteers we represent what is in their best interest and so sometimes we are advocating that parental rights be terminated or that they remain in the foster home for much longer than maybe they may want to remain or their families may want to remain there and a volunteer put in as little or as much they want well each it's ok each case is different the estimate is about fifteen hours a month however that's doable however to start off your little more busy  depending on how the children you're assigned if you're just assigned one child maybe you're only spending five hours a month on your tastes or you know somewhere around but maybe if you have more children in a family typically most of our families are about two children two to three children ok and it does it ever get overwhelming with reach out for another volunteer or staff member they do never left feeling that overwhelm they are never left feeling overwhelmed and it can be very overwhelming because the things that you read about the things that have happened to these children you know the children aren't in the system because of things that they do it's because of things that have been done to them and sometimes it's really difficult  kids on a you know a set business schedule for and our volunteers and some of our volunteers work full time so the time that we're talking to them is going to be in the evenings and weekends and you can do this volunteer activity even if you do work full time  because i know we need more because there are ways to work around it and the staff help out and fortunately sometimes we have in turns and other volunteers that can help do some research and and there's a waiting list right now there is a way on web ad we are advocating for eighty nine children we have currently forty active volunteers we are just starting this monday the tonight actually a new training class for volunteers and we have twenty seven kids on our waiting with only that need a volunteer and some cases we wish we had a volunteer mediately for them and we hopefully hopefully someone that's listening who has some extra time and has been looking to do something we'll call we'll give them the number and let's say they they're not sure about it but they just want to call and ask questions they can do that they can do that and actually the whole the the volunteer interview gives them a chance to ask questions but before they even fill out the application they can ask us a lot of questions ok we would don't mind talking to them because it's a special volunteer opportunity it's something unique and different you are seeing effect things and sometimes you do cry it isn't always easy and sometimes you feel like you're bashing your head against the wall but it's those little things that you can do for a child that make a difference absolutely i'm going to meeting this afternoon for one of the children i advocate for and although it's it can be very frustrating i have worked very hard to make sure that he has maintained in the same school for the last three years part of that he was changing schools every day he changed  placements every every nine months and it wasn't his fault no it's not there well it was because of circumstances in the foster home that he had to move and he was changing schools he was changing therapists and the five years that i've had this kid he has changed homes seven times has had ten different therapists and he has been in five different schools and like i said i have been able to at least maintain that this year he will graduate from  and so we can draw on those strengths you know we have volunteers that are nurses so we have a child with medical issues we can call and ask that volunteer that's our next you know what goes on we have a volunteers that are educational advocates that know a lot about education wh maybe domestic violence or drug and alcohol abuse and their family sexual abuse and everything and and although that's very difficult and hard to overcome sometimes it's a wonderful wealth of information and help because  it gives you a different perspective on that people grow grow volunteers must grow through this and they do and because you also told me that you have guest speakers that come in we do what is there you know on processes or therapist or lawyers or whatever  teaching it's constantly an educational process we're always learning always learning new things because there are so many issues that impact the dynamics of child abuse and neglect and i can't imagine  washington county not having this chapter because you and i know the hardship you go through personally financially i do yes i know what happened behind the scenes and i can't imagine your doors closing  we only have this you know we have two fundraisers a year you know the wake up your dreams which is the talent show in the fall but this is the big one yes and we are adding a new one this year are quite shoot in june oh ok casa ok the name yet but that'll singing competition wake up your dreams we will be raffling off prizes throughout the night and will have tables of auction items this and that is filled with fun for everyone but let's not forget on purpose we must raise funds event just call up your bit reservation will be your entrance into a bill of sale on april twentieth and remember speak up for a child thank you you thank