CASA NYC

A Former Foster Care Youth And Advocate On Learning To Be The Mother She Didn't Have | Essence "Being in care didn't dissuade me from wanting to be a mom. It made me want to be a good mom," says Charell Star of her journey to parenthood.

The Supper Club Stage is Set! Our headline performer, Yola, is a Grammy-nominated artist, songwriter, and actor who has achieved critical acclaim, breakout success, and has been proclaimed as one of the most exciting and innovative artists in music today. Our EmCee, Tone Bell, Tone Bell is a comedian, writer, actor, and producer known for his comedy special Can’t Cancel This and comedy album One Night in Austin. Our featured performer, Fancy Hagood, has one of country music's most expressive and agile voices, a fearless sense of storytelling, undeniable charisma, a strong artistic identity, and a support system packed with some of music's biggest stars.

Meet our 2024 Supper Club Honoree: La La Anthony!
La La is universally known as an actress, producer, author, and entrepreneur. Anthony has been gaining recognition for her impactful work through her program, ThreeSixty inside Rikers Island. Through ThreeSixty, La La and her team provide mentorship and life coaching, legal services, and re-entry tools to young men ages 18–21 who are incarcerated at Rikers Island and they continue to support these young men as they transition back to the community after release. CASA-NYC is proud to partner with the ThreeSixty program as we further develop our advocacy for youth impacted by both the foster care and criminal-legal system, and work to close the foster care-to-prison pipeline.
Click https://files.constantcontact.com/bd2fed71101/b6ad5442-b7ee-4772-8b1f-bb5f49d95ab9.pdf?rdr=true to learn more about La La's advocacy work and her many other achievements.

Meet our 2024 Supper Club Honoree: Charell Star!
Charell, a member of the CASA-NYC board of directors since 2016, spent years of her childhood in NYC foster care and shares her personal experiences to educate and advocate for improved services for children and youth in foster care.
Click https://files.constantcontact.com/bd2fed71101/c3317cb3-cb9d-49a8-a048-cd6b51ef4080.pdf?rdr=true to learn more about Charell's advocacy work and her many other achievements.

Thank you to everyone who came to our Volunteer Appreciation Event despite the horrible weather! It’s a testament to your hard work and dedication as a CASA-NYC advocate. To those of you who couldn’t attend, we hope to see you at our next one!

Congratulations to our newest group of CASA-NYC volunteer advocates! Earlier this month 28 new advocates were sworn in by Honorable Alison M. Hamanjian and will be assigned their first cases soon. This class went above and beyond by gifting our pre-service trainers bouquets of flowers. If you're interested in becoming a CASA-NYC volunteer, visit our website and sign up for our next info session on April 10th.

CASA-NYC is thrilled to announce we will be a charity partner of TCS New York City Marathon for the 2024 TCS New York City Marathon! Do you want to participate in one of the city’s most anticipated and iconic annual sporting events and raise money for CASA-NYC? Apply by May 1st
by using this link: https://chat.google.com/dm/g5uI70AAAAE/unat1s9U02c/unat1s9U02c?cls=10
Only 5 spots available.

March is Social Work Month! What better time to shout out the amazing work our social work staff does here at CASA-NYC! Our licensed social workers help recruit, train, and supervise our volunteers to give each child the individual and consistent attention that the child welfare system cannot always provide. They work to put services in place, cut through red tape, and facilitate movement through the system so that children achieve permanency as quickly as possible. No other organization exists to advocate in this way for New York City foster youth. Thank you social workers for your tireless advocacy!

You’re invited to CASA-NYC’s annual Supper Club! Please join us on April 30th at Tribeca Rooftop as we honor La La Anthony and Charell Star. We're looking forward to a spectacular evening with cocktails, a three-course dinner, and dessert reception, plus fabulous performances and a live auction to benefit the children and families we serve. Don't miss our biggest event of the year! Click the link in our bio to purchase a ticket or table.

March 8th marks International Women's Day! Today we celebrate and honor the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women throughout the world. The work we do here at CASA-NYC couldn’t be done without the strong support of women in social work and the fierce leadership of our women staff, advocates, and stakeholders alike. Happy International Women's Day!

As Black History Month comes to an end, we wanted to share quotes from our Youth Fellow Brie Hayes. Brie works with members of the Youth Advisory Board, our DEI committee, and BIPOC affinity group to make CASA-NYC a more inclusive space. We hope Black and African American people feel inspired by her and to continue the conversation, comment your thoughts below!

We would like to welcome Maria and Jospeh to our team! Prior to joining CASA-NYC, Joseph worked at Seamen's Society for the City of New York's Administration for Children Services as a Child Protective Specialist, and then as a Family Team Conference Facilitator for Foster Care. Joseph hopes to continue providing advocacy and support at CASA-NYC for children and families in the child welfare system. Maria started at CASA-NYC in December after completing her development internship at CASA of Tarrant County in Fort Worth, Texas. Maria will continue assisting with fundraising efforts that support CASA-NYC's mission.

Earlier this month honorable Judge Anne-Marie Jolly swore in our first graduating class of 2024! These 22 new volunteer advocates completed our 35-hour pre-service training and will soon be assigned their first cases. We look forward to seeing how this class will help advocate for children and youth in the foster care system. To view individual photos check out our February 2024 photo album.

Happy Lunar New Year. 2024 is the Year of the Dragon which is said to bring power, prosperity, and good fortune. CASA-NYC wishes you and your loved ones a happy and prosperous new year!

CASA-NYC’s Board of Directors held its first book club earlier this month, hosted by the Board Engagement committee at Fair Futures NYC. We’re reading Invisible Child: Poverty, survival & hope in an American city, by Andrea Elliott - which we highly recommend if you haven’t read it! Board members appreciated the honest depiction of NYC systems that CASA’s staff and volunteers help the children, youth and families we serve to navigate.

Happy Black History Month! Black History Month is not only a time to reflect on the trials and tribulations of black history but to celebrate and uplift black culture in America. We acknowledge that we work around and within a child welfare system steeped in structural racism, leading to Black children being vastly over-represented in foster care, in NYC and across the United States. Nevertheless, we have many Black Americans to thank for improvements made to the system. Stay tuned this month to hear from Black and African American people here at CASA-NYC!

We are excited to announce that in January we launched our Youth Speaker's Bureau! Congrats to the graduates of the training: Angelica, Kiara, Destiny, Christina, Leigh-Anna, and Sarah. Our youth fellow, Brie Hayes, along with other staff spent months updating and improving upon the speaker's bureau portion of a curriculum that was developed for CASA's youth leadership council and speaker's bureau back in 2018. Now with the re-launching of the speaker's bureau, we will be able to train and support a new cohort of current and former foster youth to speak publicly about their experiences in foster care, and give them greater support to do that in a way that is trauma-informed and empowering.

Join us on Tuesday, April 30th for CASA-NYC’s annual Supper Club at Tribeca Rooftop! We look forward to celebrating with our closest friends and supporters. Tickets are now available to purchase on our website www.casa-nyc.org/supperclub. Stay tuned as we announce our Honorees, Co-chairs, performers, and more in the coming weeks!