Capital City CASA advocates for foster children in Cole County. In the last three years alone, 272 children were removed from their homes for abuse or neglect, fewer than half will ever go home. We need you to volunteer to give a voice to one of these children.

We see news stories every day about children taken from an abusive home, or because of the tragic loss of a parent due to illness, violence or incarceration. We assume there must be a program or “system” that will take care of these children and make sure they are treated with dignity, given a safe place to live, so they can recover from their hardship and be a child again.

But there is a story behind the story that few people speak about. It is the story of overburdened foster care and child welfare systems that – though full of well-intentioned and deeply committed people – cannot begin to meet the needs of the more than 200 children in foster care in Cole County.