LANSING, Mich — The Group CASA has spent more than 30 years giving foster care children a voice in the court system — and a Week of Kindness makeover is helping the organization build community among the people who make that work possible.
The nonprofit serves Barry, Eaton and Ingham counties, connecting children in the foster care system with trained volunteer advocates.
"We serve Berry, Eaton and Ingham county.. and what we do is we bring voice to kids in the foster care system who don't always have a voice," outreach and development manager Katie Eaton said.
Those volunteers go through an intensive preparation process before working with children.
"They go through these 40 hours of training and then they get sworn in may the courts, and they work with kids in cases they are comfortable with," Eaton said.
CASA helps about 120 kids in Ingham County each year. That impact is part of why the organization was selected to participate in Week of Kindness.
The act of kindness focused on transforming a shared conference room — used by CASA and its nonprofit partners — into a welcoming space for staff and volunteers.
"Today, our act of kindness is taking the shared conference room which is shared with our other non profit partners and making it a space, where people feel welcomed, have coffee, have a chat, or a snack with each other," Eaton said.
New additions to the space include a bookshelf, a snack area and a colorful "pass it forward" mural. For Eaton, that phrase carries a deeper meaning.
"Just passing the feeling of community forward," Eaton said.
Volunteers with Child and Family Charities helped bring the project to life — a team effort with a shared purpose.
"We can equally acknowledge that there has been harm by the system and that we want to move forward and make things better," Eaton said.
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