When children need a place to call home

Just a few months ago, I moved to a new home . With all three children now in college, it seemed appropriate to downsize from the home we had shared for the past nine years. The process affected me in unexpected ways. To be sure, I underestimated the time and energy required to pack up our lives – and the toll it would take on my hands and back! I was mostly unprepared, however, for the sadness and uncertainty my children and I experienced as we left our familiar surroundings.

Reflecting on my own discomfort with making a new place feel like home, I can only imagine the trauma inflicted on many children under the court’s protection who are removed from their homes and expected to settle into a home of strangers. In addition to healing from the abuse suffered at their parents’ hands, children in foster care must also contend with new “parents,” children, rooms, food, rules – new everything.

Upheaval for abused children in foster care and even those who remain in their homes with court protection is inevitable. It is our commitment at Fairfax CASA to ease that chaos by providing these children with the consistent presence of a CASA volunteer. It is the CASA volunteer who helps an abused or neglected child feel supported and heard and who remains involved their lives until they are in a place they call home.

As I experience 2013 at a new address, I am reminded that wherever we reside with people who mutually love, respect, and care for one another is “home.” Your support of Fairfax CASA, as a volunteer, a donor, or colleague, helps to ensure that a volunteer will always be there to guide a child towards that place of comfort and security.

You can support Fairfax CASA by participating in the May 4 Run for the Children 8K Race & 3K Run/Walk. Register by March 15 and enter for the chance to win a Timex GPS!