CASA on the Go: Continuing Education for CASA Volunteers
This continuing education podcast connects CASA volunteers with engaging and relevant training designed to help strengthen advocacy for children and families. Each short, dynamic episode features informative discussions with subject matter experts exploring topics connected to child welfare and best practices for CASA advocacy. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the speaker(s) in their personal capacity and are not the official policy or position of Texas CASA.
CASA on the Go: Continuing Education for CASA Volunteers
Evidence-Based Family Engagement with Dr. Natalie Beck Aguilera
The CASA guiding principles stress that strengthening families, through recommendations for services, supports, visitation and communications, is in the child’s best interests to achieve stability and/or reunification. In this episode, we reflect on how CASA advocates can help bend the arc of child welfare practice to become more fully strengths-based and family-centered. The wonderful Dr. Natalie Beck Aguilera shares evidence-based strategies for engaging with families and explores why collaborating with family members is so crucial to effective child advocacy. Dr. Beck Aguilera's "reframe game" illuminates how a strengths-based advocacy lens can help us reconsider resistance we might encounter in our work with families, and she draws on her extensive social work experience to share insights about the ways in which our own attitudes impact our working relationships with parents and families.