Missouri
Ragtag to host Heart of Missouri CASA event on foster care
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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.
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.”
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.
“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.”
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.
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.
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Missouri
Missouri State football vs. Montana today: Live updates, highlights from Week 1 game
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Missouri State football: Ryan Beard previews Montana
Missouri State head football coach Ryan Beard held his weekly press conference ahead of Saturday’s opener at Montana.
Missouri State football season has arrived and an offseason of looking to the 2025 season and its impending move to Conference USA will be set aside for the Bears’ final season in the Missouri Valley Football Conference and FCS.
Opening day will present quite a challenge.
Missouri State will open its 2024 season at FCS national runner-up Montana on Saturday in Missoula, Montana, at 8 p.m. This is the first time the two teams have met on the gridiron.
Ryan Beard is entering his second season as Missouri State’s head coach. His team will look to build off a 4-7 season while staying focused on this season despite being ineligible for the FCS Playoffs.
Montana finished last season as the FCS national runner-up. The Grizzlies hope to finish the job this season as they enter the season as the No. 3-ranked team in the country.
Check here for live score updates and highlights throughout the night:
Subscribe to ESPN+ to stream Missouri State vs. Montana
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Missouri
Missouri father uses a funeral to wean daughter off pacifier
![Missouri father uses a funeral to wean daughter off pacifier Missouri father uses a funeral to wean daughter off pacifier](https://assets2.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2024/08/30/eb1dd335-54d7-4517-8d8b-d45122eb70c4/thumbnail/1200x630/32c8dea64d870fcc5a70195cc51b9cd9/1725061905469.png?v=25685eaa472b1a5dbb5bd46ae506d232)
The Bishop family of Festus, Missouri, can smile now, but a few months ago the mood was much more somber as Courtney, Jake and their 3-year-old daughter Hazel said goodbye to a very important member of the family: Hazel’s beloved pacifier.
“It’s not good for her teeth and her jaws and all of that, so we had been trying to wean her off of it for some time,” Jake, 35, said.
Hazel’s beloved pacifier, affectionately known as “Paci,” had been with her for years. Jake knew saying goodbye could come with tears and tantrums, so he searched for creative approaches to ease the transition. He considered options such as cutting off the end of the pacifier, soaking it in vinegar or planting it in a pot.
Instead, Jake chose to give Paci a funeral.
Of course, before the internet, parents used to just take the thing away and deal with the tantrum. But today, for better or worse, young parents like Jake would rather not go to war over a binky. They’re “pacy-fists,” if you will.
“You need them to go through some tough times to really grow as a person but you don’t need to make extra tough times for them,” Jake said. “They’ll have plenty of those coming up.”
Parents delight in making milestones, but those milestones are often bittersweet because each turning point is a point of no return.
“She’s transitioning to the next stage of her life,” Jake said of Hazel, their first child. “We just got to hold onto those moments and those memories, because it goes fast.”
Hazel hasn’t asked for Paci again since. Although, shortly after the ceremony, Jake dug it up and buried it again in a keepsake box, making dad the one who just can’t let go.
Missouri
Kansas man charged after child porn allegedly sent while in Missouri
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KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) – A Kansas man has been charged after he allegedly sent child pornography while in a Missouri county.
Court documents filed in the Platte County, Missouri, Circuit Court have revealed that on Wednesday, Aug. 28, Courtnie R. Purvis, 45, of Overland Park, Kansas, has been charged with a single count of promoting child pornography in the first degree.
A complaint filed by the prosecuting attorney reported that in June 2023, Purvis knowingly sent out child pornography while in Platte County. The content allegedly depicted two victims, with whom Purvis has been barred from any contact.
As a part of his $25,000 cash-only bond agreement, if bailed out, Purvis is not allowed contact with any minor whatsoever. As of Friday, he is not behind Platte County bars.
Copyright 2024 KCTV. All rights reserved.
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