Our Statement of Solidarity

Like so many others, we at Piedmont CASA feel anguish, rage, sadness, pain and so much more in response to the ongoing violence against Black Americans. We know that these aggressions are not new, and we reaffirm publicly our commitment to action as we stand with all those who demand a just community based in equity for black people. Black Lives Matter.

Piedmont CASA is a majority white organization playing a significant role in the child welfare system, a system in which children of color, particularly black children, are overrepresented. We are charged with advocating for the best interest of all children who have been removed from their families due to safety concerns.

As a partner in the child welfare system, Piedmont CASA must reckon with the role race plays in our interactions, reactions, decisions, and recommendations to the courts. We must recognize and do the work to disarm any biases and prejudices that inform how we talk to and about CASA children and families, and how we walk with CASA children and families as they navigate a system that is intended to help, but too often harms.

All CASA children are in foster care. They come from homes that are living at the intersection of race, poverty, gender, childhood and adult adverse experiences, as well as generational and historical trauma. Taking a hard, clear-eyed look at our work with black children and families will improve our advocacy for all our kids and families.

From our Board of Directors to our staff to our Volunteers, it is up to us to do this work to be deliberately anti-racist. We are listening. We are learning. We are part of this change-movement. We reaffirm our pledge to our community and the children we serve: Piedmont CASA provides a voice for children in court, and their safety and wellbeing can only be assured when equity and justice are pillars of our advocacy.

Piedmont CASA will do this work. We will be better. We start now.