About 720 kids have been put into foster care in Boone and Callaway counties final yr.
In conditions associated to abuse or neglect, the kid may obtain a Courtroom Appointed Particular Advocate, or a CASA.
“CASA volunteers are sort of the eyes and ears of the courtroom,” mentioned Kelly Hill, Coronary heart of Missouri CASA govt director. “We actually serve to verify the decide and the courtroom have all the knowledge they should make the most effective selections for kids.”
To showcase the work of CASA and the way kids navigate the foster care system, Coronary heart of Missouri CASA is internet hosting “Lights. Digicam. Take Motion” at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at Ragtag Cinema. Tickets can be found by means of the Coronary heart of Missouri CASA web site.
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The hour-long, three-part movie “ReMoved” might be proven to the viewers earlier than a panel — that includes CASA volunteers, a neighborhood guardian advert litem, CASA employees and an grownup who was in foster care — will take questions and lead a dialogue.
This occasion is being held partially to focus on Nationwide Baby Abuse Prevention Month.
Three-quarters of kid abuse victims in 2020 have been uncared for, whereas round 16% have been bodily abused, 9% have been sexually abused and 0.2% have been put into intercourse trafficking, in keeping with the federal Baby Maltreatment report. Practically 1,800 kids in the USA died in 2020 from abuse or neglect.
“We actually attempt to use this month to hit house the state of affairs of children in our neighborhood,” Hill mentioned.
Easy methods to volunteer as a CASA
CASA volunteers come from any variety of backgrounds, Hill mentioned.
“Just a little greater than half nonetheless work full-time. They could be professors, work at Veterans United, actual property brokers, bankers or small enterprise homeowners,” she mentioned. “We even have people which can be retired or college students who’re a minimum of 21. We now have stay-at-home-parents or people who work half time.”
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Potential volunteers fill out an utility, take part in an interview with Coronary heart of Missouri CASA employees and full a background test. Then the volunteer undergoes 30 hours of coaching, damaged into three-hour on-line or in-person periods.
When a volunteer completes the course, they’re sworn as officers of the courtroom and are supplied their first case.
“Each CASA volunteer is matched with one in all our advocate supervisors, in order that they have actually intensive help,” Hill mentioned.
There’s a spherical of coaching beginning June 23; purposes are being accepted now.
A CASA dedication is usually a minimum of two years for eight to 12 hours monthly.
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“When a toddler has a CASA, they’re able to have a constant, secure grownup of their life,” Hill mentioned.
Extra:Leaders name Room on the Inn extension at occasion heart a profitable endeavor
Difficult time for kids’s providers
Greater than 14,000 kids in Missouri are in foster care, Coronary heart of Missouri CASA mentioned. They’re within the system a mean of two years, or 11% of their childhood, and through that span transfer a mean of 5 instances.
Not each foster care case receives a CASA attributable to what number of volunteers can be found, as CASAs commit themselves to one case at a time.
“Proper now we’re serving about 55% of the youngsters in want. Final yr we served 371 youngsters,” Hill mentioned about Coronary heart of Missouri CASA. “We want extra people who will volunteer to be advocates for the youngsters.”
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Coronary heart of Missouri CASA has an final aim of serving 100% of instances below its mission. It has an interim aim of serving 75% by 2023.
These unpaid advocates, in search of the most effective pursuits of foster kids, work carefully with case managers, who’re employed by the Missouri Division of Social Companies — Youngsters’s Division.
Case managers deal with many instances without delay and are answerable for serving to a complete household, together with setting particular person providers, CASA notes on its web site.
Because the variety of kids in foster care will increase, case managers really feel the pressure, dealing with demanding workloads in an business with an ongoing problem hiring and retaining staff amid a excessive danger of burnout.
The state and three companies with which it contracts — Nice Circle, Cornerstones of Care and Each Kid’s Hope — present case administration in central Missouri.
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Case managers can have workloads upward of a dozen instances, mentioned Jon Ratliff, communications director with Cornerstones of Care.
They’re the hub of the skilled household help staff, which might embody a CASA, guardian advert litem and the juvenile workplace, he added.
Nice Circle serves 169 instances within the five-county area of Boone, Callaway, Randolph, Howard and Cole, mentioned Beatrice Stewart, director of neighborhood based mostly providers. Cornerstones of Care serves 84 and Each Kid’s Hope serves 72, she added.
Charles Dunlap covers courts, public security and different normal topics for the Tribune. You may attain him at cdunlap@columbiatribune.com, or CD_CDT on Twitter. Please take into account subscribing to help very important native journalism.
The inauguration has come and passed for Republican Donald Trump, who is the nation’s 47th president. Missouri Lt. Governor David Wasinger traveled to Washington D.C. to attend the inauguration.
“President Trump endorsed me to be Missouri’s next Lieutenant Governor,” Wasinger said. “I wanted to return the favor. We appeared with him at the inauguration in 2016 and we certainly didn’t want to miss this historic occasion.”
We are at Trump Inauguration. The energy level is a 10 out of 10…lines are miles long and it is cold! Just interviewed with FoxNews. pic.twitter.com/eSNyk9H8oe
“Donald Trump is going to renew America,” is what Wasinger said about the new Trump Administration.
“There’s going to be a period of economic renewal that President Trump outlined in his speech after the inauguration,” he said. “So, Missourians and frankly the entire United States should be ecstatic about his being sworn in as our 47th President of the United States.”
Wasinger, a native of northeastern Missouri’s Hannibal, is Missouri’s 49th Lieutenant Governor. He was sworn in last Monday.
Missouri officials stand ready to use state resources to help President Donald Trump enforce immigration law as he takes office.
A newly inaugurated Trump begins his next four years with a focus on taxes, foreign policy and immigration. Gov. Mike Kehoe last week signed two executive orders — 25-04 and 25-05 — that will have state and local law enforcement assisting in immigration law enforcement.
Order 25-04 will have designated members of the Missouri State Highway Patrol be trained in enforcing federal immigration laws to help with investigating, arresting and detaining illegal immigrants in partnership with the Department of Homeland Security.
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Executive order 25-05 will add immigration status data to the state’s crime reporting system and have the MSHP continue to collect and maintain the information.
“These executive orders will equip law enforcement with much-needed resources and support to effectively address crime,” Missouri Department of Public Safety Director Mark James said in a news release last Monday, when Kehoe was sworn in.
According to a 2022 Pew Research study, unauthorized immigrants made up 3.3% of the total U.S. population and 23% of the US foreign-born population.
The American Immigration Council found that in 2022 there were 59,000 undocumented immigrants, making up 1% of Missouri’s population.
“I got an awful lot of phone calls right after the [presidential] election,” St. Louis-based immigration attorney David Cox said. “I’ve continued to get a steady stream of interested phone calls and people just saying, ‘Hey, is there a change in the law? Is there something I should be concerned about or worried about?’”
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While Cox hasn’t seen major updates yet, he and other immigration practitioners plan to stay alert for changes to immigration enforcement.
“Some of the benefits that we seek that I help people apply for are for people who are out of status but have a path to become legal,” Cox said. “They’re on that path, but they’re not yet at the finish line, so a lot of those people have called me and are worried.”
Cox said he is worried about the Laken Riley Act being considered by the Senate after being passed by the House. The bill would require the detention of undocumented immigrants charged with theft or burglary. Cox adds that while minor offenses may have been a cause for deportation, it wasn’t commonly enforced.
“U.S. policy was not to waste its time and effort trying to enforce, for example, a shoplifter who stole,” Cox said.
Additionally, according to a study from the National Institute of Justice of Texas arrest records, undocumented immigrants have the lowest arrest rates, adding that there has been no increase in undocumented immigrant crime.
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Cox is expecting that the increased focus on immigration enforcement will slow down the deportation process across the nation.
“It’s really a whole different question and one that might well throw a wrench into the effort because it could involve so many people that it’ll just bog down law enforcement and the courts, both the local courts who have to deal with it and the immigration courts,” Cox said.
Trump is expected to get rolling on his immigration agenda quickly. A Fox News affiliate in El Paso reported that federal agents had closed the point of entry in that border city Monday.
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey shared video of the closed crossing on social media platform X saying “It’s begun.”
Gov. Mike Kehoe posted that he looks forward to working with Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance “to make our state and nation stronger, safer, and more prosperous.”
The state’s largest business association wants to see Missouri be a top-ten state in manufacturing.
Columbia Mayor Barbara Buffaloe speaks at the April 6, 2023 ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new $200-million Swift Foods plant on Route B, as Boone County Presiding Commissioner Kip Kendrick listens (file photo courtesy of the governor’s Flickr page)
Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Kara Corches tells 939 the Eagle that the Show-Me State currently ranks 28th in manufacturing competitiveness:
“We know that Missouri has a very rich history in manufacturing in making goods that change quality of life and improve technology. And we just want to make sure that we are maximizing our history and our potential as a state,” Ms. Corches says.
President Corches says manufacturing in Missouri employs 287,000 people, contributing $50-billion annually to the state’s gross domestic product. The Missouri Chamber Foundation is making seven recommendations. They include expanding the workforce pipeline for manufacturing careers and providing incentives and technical assistance to increase capital investment.
Chamber president Corches also wants to see more emphasis on the recruitment of new manufacturers and the expansion of existing operations:
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“Our course we want to land new projects in the state. But it is very important to the Missouri Chamber that we are helping those who are already located here. Who have called Missouri home for many years. We want to make sure that we are contributing to their success and their growth,” says Corches.
President Corches also says there is plenty of room for improvement. She says that in critical competitiveness categories like workforce and infrastructure, Missouri is among the bottom 15 states.
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