Sacramento CASA

A BIG PART OF MY HEART'S WORK.....Instead of reviewing a bowl of pasta, a sushi roll, or how quickly I got my car back from the mechanic, this is a more special review to me for it has to do with a community service and promoting a worthy cause near and dear to my heart. To this end, I have a LOT of respect for the SACRAMENTO CHILD ADVOCATES (SCA). SCA - a nonprofit legal and advocacy group serving abused and neglected children - has a dedicated staff of social workers and attorneys who work together to provide legal representation for an average of 160 abused and/or neglected children who enter the court system each month.MY WORK INTERSECTS WITH SCAIn my work with the State of California, I work amongst the attorneys, the investigators and licensing enforcement officers of Community Care Licensing (CCL). We are enstrusted with protecting the health, safety and welfare of children in care at foster homes, group homes and child care centers. Often these children come from neglectful and abusive backgrounds, and whereas my organization (CCL) is focused on the monitoring of the quality of care provided by these facilities and staffs that interact with children (which means we will shut down bad facilities and we will exclude bad staff from working in such facilities), the SCA serves an extremely important and separate role in protecting and arguing on behalf of the rights of these children themselves.SCA ACTIVITIESIn addition, SCA strives to raise awareness about issues that affect foster children in a holistic manner, through youth projects such as, Advocates for Young Adults, the Child Welfare Fund and the Youth Advisory Panel. SCA finds that a stable and consistent dialogue between youth and those that represent these youth as their attorney's and youth advocate social workers is imperative in sustaining a well functioning organization. SCA foresees efforts to maintain strong connections with foster youth through such projects will result in positive outcomes for the youth, as well as take away some of the barriers "the system" often creates for youth.You can't ask for a better organization than SCA in bringing the spotlight of scrutiny to these issues for these children in need. Since it is a NON-PROFIT, that means it is funded by the generousity of people who are moved by SCA's mission: charitable contributions and donations from organizations and people like you and me. There are also fundraisers. In fact, there is a charitable fundraiser coming up for this organization this Saturday, September 25th, which was one of the main motivations for me to complete my review of this organization. If this is along the lines of a charitable cause that moves you, please consider participating in the following:THE EVENT: There will be local "celebrity-chefs" to help raise money to pay for legal services and other programs for foster children in Sacramento County. The event will include a live auction, a cook-off featuring celebrity chefs such as my law school schoolmate - Sacramento County District Attorney Jan Scully - and Bee columnist Rick Kushman, and a golf-ball drop for prizes. When and where: Sept. 25 from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. at a private home in Fair Oaks. Tickets are $100 each and are tax-deductible. Golf balls can be purchased for $25 each, or five for $100. For more information: To become a sponsor or buy tickets or golf balls, go to www.sacchildadv.org, call Laura Fast at (916) 364-2342 or e-mail [email protected] more at: http://www.sacbee.com/2010/07/22/2906816/volunteer-spotlight-sacramento.html#ixzz10C80i7WpThank you very much for taking the time to read about this organization and the important service it provides to our families and our Sacramento YELP community.

SCA is a permier nonprofit organization dedicated to advocating for abused and neglected children in the foster care system. SCA has a passionate Board, a committed staff, and a visionary Executive Director in Bob Wilson. SCA effectively advocates on behalf of these neediest of children in the court system and in the educational system to ensure their needs are met.

Anybody that gives these guys less than 5 stars is not paying attention. Great organization!