Impact Austin awarded five $100,000 grants to worthy nonprofit organizations in June, and this fall, we are checking in with our 2014 Community Partners to hear about the programs we funded and their thoughts about the impact of our grants.
Here’s what CASA of Travis County had to say:
“Because of the reach of our advocacy, CASA will be the linchpin in an overburdened system to ensure that everyone who comes into contact with foster children understands the need to respond not to a child’s bad behavior but to the trauma that underlies it. We are so grateful to Impact Austin for supporting this groundbreaking project that has the potential to dramatically transform the foster care system here in Travis County and beyond.” - Laura Wolf, Executive Director
CASA of Travis County promotes and protects the best interests of abused and neglected children by training volunteers to advocate for them in courts, schools, and the community. CASA helps these children find safe, permanent, loving homes. CASA will use their Impact Austin grant for a new project, “Trauma-Informed Care in the Foster Care System,” intended to improve and standardize the level of skills for providers through a collaborative training system developed at Texas Christian University. The overarching goal of this collaboration is to help foster youth healing more quickly from the trauma of abuse and neglect by surrounding them with volunteers and child care professionals trained in the principles of Trust-Based Relational Intervention. The main principles of this approach focus on identifying, understanding, and responding to the child's needs rather than their behavior, and this project will provide necessary training to volunteers and community partners.
For more information visit www.casatravis.org
Stay tuned for future posts checking in with our other 2014 Community Partners, and visit the See Our Impact page to learn about all the wonderful work we’ve supported over the years!
