The Voices of Child Advocates of Fort Bend JANUARY 2024

TheVOICES of

Inside / CEO Update • Child Trafficking Awareness • Collaboration at CAFB • Holiday Wrap Up • and More!

January 2024

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contents NEWS + FEATURES

03 FROM THE CEO CEO Ruthanne Mefford shares what we have been up to this month

05 SPOTLIGHT: OUR DONORS Thank you for your support in 2023!

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06 PROGRAM HIGHLIGHT

Keeping you informed on our mission: Strengthen the Child's Voice, Heal the Hurt, and Break the Cycle of Abuse and Neglect for Children in Fort Bend and surrounding counties.

COLLABORATION AT CAFB 9 JANUARY AWARENESS MONTH: HUMAN TRAFFICKING Learn what we are doing. . .

11 SPOTLIGHTS See what we've been doing this month Home Tour wrap, third party events and MORE!

15 ELF PARTY WRAP UP We love this time of year. . .

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18 NEEDS + OPPORTUNITIES

MONTHLY SPOTLIGHTS

ELF PARTY

19 SAVE THESE DATES

See what we’ve been doing!

We love this time of year!

Check out what we need this month and how you can help us

Save these dates and plan to join us for these upcoming events

5403 AVENUE N ROSENBERG, TX 77471 281-344-5100

WWW.CAFB.ORG

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from the ceo Happy New Year!

Happy New Year Friends!

I hope that you had a wonderful holiday season and wishing you a happy and healthy 2024. We are excited to bring you our first edition of VOICES for the new year chocked full of information about upcoming events, a recap of 2023, our strategic direction for the year, and recognizing child victims as part of National Human Trafficking Month.

2023 was a very busy year at Child Advocates of Fort Bend. We celebrated our 32nd year serving children who have been abused and neglected. Our CASA Program expanded to hire 2 new Courtesy CASA staff members, trained 40 new volunteers and provided continuing education trainings to 1,176 staff, volunteers, partners and community members. We cheered as 12 high school seniors graduated and we celebrated the adoptions of 12 children and teens who were placed with their forever families. In our CAC, we served 3,163 children and families across our many services. We welcomed 6 new CAC staff members, built out our therapy program, hired a new Clinical Director and a new Program Services Director. The CAC completed 1,227 forensic interviews during the

year. Our Community Engagement team was hard at work with outreach and prevention messaging forensic interviews during the year – our largest number in our history. Our Community Engagement team was hard at work with outreach and prevention messaging to to 18,447 children and adults. Apart from all the regular services we provide children and families, we launched four new initiatives in 2023.

Our Strategic Direction for 2024 reflected in our new strategic plan is to connect children and families with all the services that CAFB offers that are right for them, to increase utilization of all we have to offer and to move upstream by developing prevention services so that children will be safe and not have to experience abuse.

Some highlights of our new initiatives: Our Care Coordination initiative brings together both our CAC and CASA as well as partner agencies to tackle the devastating issue of sex trafficking of minors and position ourselves to coordinate after-care for these child victims.

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In December, Dr. David Lanagan handed off the money jacket to Eileen Akerson who will lead the Board in 2024

CAP-C which stands for Child Abuse Prevention Collaborative is a new effort to convene child welfare professionals across Fort Bend County to come together, conduct stakeholder research to learn from children and parents what could have prevented abuse, build a resource library or database with child abuse prevention materials and prototype our findings in the community.

Forever Angels is our new planned giving initiative to offer our loyal donors opportunities to support children and CAFB through planned gifts after they pass. And our “18 Services” initiative is our vision to break down silos and access both CASA and CAC services to all children we serve, regardless of which program they enter our agency. You will be hearing more in the coming year about all these initiatives which we will share in upcoming VOICES issues.

For 32 years, Child Advocates of Fort Bend (CAFB) has been serving children who have been abused and neglected. We have strengthened the voice, healed the hurt and broken the cycle of abuse for over 22,000

children. Over three decades, we have built an award-winning nonprofit that consistently provides 100% of children in foster care with a Court Appointed Special Advocate and introduced a Multi-Disciplinary Team approach to children who have been sexually abused.

By capitalizing on the solid foundation and expertise that CAFB has built over 32 years, our future could not be brighter. Today and going forward, our work is integral to keeping children safe, strengthening families, and building a stronger community in Fort Bend.

Our vision to End the Cycle of Abuse will never change, but the lens through which we view this vision will adapt as we continue on our journey of transforming lives.

For the Children's Sake,

Ruthanne

Ruthanne Mefford, CEO

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Thank you for your support It’s time to close the books for 2023, and what a year it was! Together we’ve been able to accomplish some amazing things.

We are grateful to have had over 2,300 individual donations of requested items or financial dollars. That’s YOU who made a difference and it matters. It matters a lot because without YOU, our donors, we cannot do this work.

With your support, we can continue to provide essential programs and support

services to children and youth impacted by abuse so that they can not only heal and recover from the trauma of their abuse and have tools to build resiliency but also have renewed opportunities for successful lives.

Whether you gave gifts, blankets, auction items or money you had an impact. So, thank you from the bottom of our hearts for supporting our operations and being part of our family. May your 2024 be filled with all things healthy and happy!

Whether you gave gifts, blankets, auction items or money YOU had an impact.

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PROGRAM HIGHLIGHT :

Collaboration at CAFB and how we meet our children‘s needs. . .

By Makayleigh Adams, Kristy Guitierrez, Metoyer Martin and Jheri Walters

We at Child Advocates of Fort Bend have the unique opportunity to walk alongside children and families in the worst season of their lives, lifting their voices and providing support as needed. We treasure this opportunity and work diligently to ensure we are meeting the needs of our community and providing services that positively impact children and families.

Several years ago, disaster ensued in the life of a young child that led to her connection with both the CAC and CASA. Following the death of her mother, the child made an outcry of ongoing sexual abuse by her father. She further elaborated on the abuse during an interview at the CAC and the father was incarcerated. The child’s stepmother was unsupportive of her outcry and refused to take the child home. The Department of Family and Protective Services stepped in and quickly located a relative placement. CASA was assigned to the case and assessed that the initial placement had limited potential for longevity. The relative was happy to assist the child in the meantime, but was not able to provide long term care or stability. CASA immediately began looking into more permanent solutions for the child.

Thankfully, another relative came forward, offering their unyielding support of the child with the promise of a safe and stable placement. As DFPS completed necessary paperwork and prepared to transition the child, an initial criminal hearing was held for the child’s father. The relative the child was initially placed with testified that she was not always truthful, negatively impacting the

child’s case and chance for justice. CASA advocated for and worked diligently alongside DFPS to ensure the immediate transfer of the child to ensure her protection and viability of the criminal case. A loophole was found allowing the child to be placed on vacation with the new relative placement for two weeks as DFPS finalized the transfer paperwork.

The move between placements was difficult for the child as it required her to transfer schools and leave behind her friends. CASA utilized the Collaborative Family Engagement (CFE) tools with the child and Circle of Trust, in which she listed the most important people in their life and their significance. CASA utilized this information to assist the child in choosing her favorite photos of family and friends to create a collage for display in her new bedroom.

CASA also provided funding for the child to attend summer camp to provide the child the opportunity to connect with new friends

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in her community. After the child settled into her new home, her caregivers requested CASA’s assistance in locating a therapist that could meet her need for both sexual abuse therapy and grief therapy. CASA reached out to CAC Clinical Director, Jheri Walters, to request referrals for a therapist that could best serve the child in the area that she lives. Once the child began therapy, and established felt safety in her new placement, she asked CASA for assistance with completing her Victim Impact Statement. CASA referred the child to her CAC Criminal Court Advocate, Renee Johnson, who assisted her with the writing process.

Child Advocates of Fort Bend has provided a variety of resources and services that the child would have otherwise not received. The Criminal and CPS cases remain open, providing the CAC and CASA the opportunity to continue collaborating in the best interest of this child.

We will continue to be intentional about the ways that each child responds and what their unique need is, whether that’s in our CASA program, in the CAC or during therapy sessions. We work together, collaboratively, to circle around our children and families to ensure they are well taken care of by CAFB staff.

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Ways we meet the needs of children in Therapy…

Therapy is all about being creative with coping skills! Picture this: therapists helping your little ones navigate the twists and turns of emotions through playful techniques. From turning stress into a bubble-wrap-poppingbonanza to transforming feelings into doodle dialogues… therapists are the architects of a therapeutic creativity where coping skills become the secret to resilience. Below are just a few examples of coping skills for children and teens.

Couch Campfire Chats: Building a Cozy Space of Trust Therapists often create safe spaces for their clients. Whether it is a specific spot on their couch with a fidget toy or an actual tent, therapist guide clients to use their imagination to build a couch campfire of trust. Image: sharing stories, toasting metaphorical marshmallows, and creating a space where even the toughest tales can find warmth.

Because, hey, therapy is all about feeling safe and understood.

Doodle Dialogues: Scribbling Away Stress Therapy sessions can turn into a doodle dialogue where feelings come to life on paper.

It's like giving a voice to those tricky emotions that might be tough to put into words.

Therapists encourage clients to select colors that match their emotions and draw lines or images on paper or canvas. Remember red doesn’t always mean mad or angry. Blue doesn’t always mean sad.

Turning Coping Skills into Fun Challenges: Therapists can easily turn coping skills into a playful challenge. Yes! There are actually board games that teach coping skills. Whether it's the Rapport Jenga or the UNO counseling, turning skills into games makes the therapeutic journey feel like a fun adventure. These games can be used to express even the toughest emotions.

Playlist Therapy: Turning Beats into Heartbeats Let's curate the ultimate therapy playlist! Music is a language that speaks to the soul, so why not let it do the talking in our sessions?

Whether it's a power ballad or a calming melody, music can be the sidekick that guides emotions through the ups and downs.

Mood Board Mania: Visualizing Dreams and Goals Time to embrace the mood board mania! From magazine cutouts to inspirational quotes, therapists can help young clients visualize their dreams and goals. It's like creating a roadmap for the future – one filled with positivity, resilience, and a touch of glitter because, well, who doesn't love a sparkly mood board?

In a nutshell, the healing doesn't always have to wear a serious face. Therapists are here to create a space where laughter, creativity, and a touch of whimsy can coexist with growth and resilience. Trust that if your little ones come out smiling and not crying, they are building their resilience and growing through their trauma.

JANUARY IS: Human Trafficking Awareness Month

By Rhonda Kuykendall, Board Member and Texas CASA Anti-Child Trafficking Consultant

National Human Trafficking Awareness Month, observed every January, stands as a vital time for Texas and the nation to unite in raising awareness about the pervasive issue of human trafficking. Throughout this month, communities come together to shed light on the plight of victims, educate the public about this heinous crime, and empower individuals to take action against human trafficking. In Texas, where diverse populations and extensive transit routes create vulnerabilities, January serves as a crucial opportunity to emphasize prevention, support survivors, and collaborate on initiatives to combat trafficking in all its various forms.

The reality is that human trafficking occurs every day in all fifty states, whether communities are rural or urban. Although we focus on anti-human trafficking efforts in January, I hope we can take the lessons learned throughout January and look for opportunities to engage in anti-child trafficking work all year round.

Human trafficking involves the use of force, fraud, or coercion to obtain some type of labor or commercial sex. For commercial sex trafficking, if the victim is under the age of 18, force, fraud, or coercion is not needed to be a victim of trafficking. Youth cannot consent to sex; therefore, when a youth is engaged in commercial sex, it is sex trafficking.

Youth in foster care face heightened vulnerability to becoming a victim of human trafficking due to a range of factors, such as family disruption, abuse, and neglect. The very reasons youth may be removed from their homes are the same susceptibilities traffickers look for in potential victims. The absence of stable familial bonds and the frequent relocation within the foster care system can create an environment where youth are more susceptible to exploitation. In 2022 alone, the Department of Family and Protective Services

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reported 38,294 children and youth under their care. A study conducted by the University of Texas revealed that a quarter of these children—over 9,500 young lives— are at risk of trafficking.

For youth who have been trafficked, almost every system that was put in place to protect them has failed. The CASA volunteer can be the one consistent, stable adult in their lives. That can be you. Understanding this vulnerability is crucial in developing targeted strategies to prevent and combat human trafficking.

It begins with understanding the issues and how to better advocate with victims of trafficking and atrisk youth. The intersectionality between youth in foster care and human trafficking is a distressing reality that demands attention and planned interventions. In the state of Texas, where a range of factors compounds the vulnerability of children, the CASA ACT framework plays a pivotal role in addressing and mitigating this complex issue.

CASA ACT: Program Guide was released this past September to help programs engage in anti-trafficking work in their areas across Texas. It begins with preventative advocacy focusing on a free online program for volunteers to use with youth to help them understand human trafficking. It then breaks down the process into four stages: exploration, preparation, implementation, and integration.

By implementing the CASA ACT: Program Guide, programs can be active partners in the anti-child trafficking and exploitation movement within their communities. Texas CASA created the CASA ACTS: Anti-Child Trafficking Hub (https://texascasa.org/resources/casaacts-anti-child-trafficking-hub/) where advocates can find all of these resources, webinars, and trainings in one location online.

Texas CASA has provided resources to local programs and volunteers to understand the intricacies of child sex trafficking in the Texas CASA ACT framework. CASA ACT stands for Anti-Child Trafficking. It is a call to action for CASA volunteers to do more than see something and say something. It is a call to do something, to ACT. Advocacy for Youth Affected by Sex Trafficking: A Guide for CASA Volunteers and Staff (Volunteer Guide) was created to help CASA volunteers recognize child sex trafficking and how to best advocate with youth at-risk or confirmed trafficked. It is a valuable resource covering definitions, models, and resources. There is a danger of CASA volunteers believing that a child chose this path because, many times, youth who are trafficked appear defiant, making poor choices for themselves. By studying the Volunteer Guide, volunteers will understand that victims of trafficking do not selfidentify. For many years, they have held the guilt of self-blaming and doubt. The term human trafficking is a term we, as professionals, law enforcement, and advocates, use. For the victim, this terminology is foreign to them. Studying the Stages of Change in the Volunteer Guide will help volunteers understand each stage and how to advocate with youth as they navigate healing from trafficking. The Volunteer Guide can be accessed here: https://bit.ly/casaACTVolunteerGuide

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monthly spotlights Home Tour, Give Backs and MORE!

Christmas Home Tour We celebrated our 32nd Annual Christmas Home Tour on December 8th & 9th and showcased five beautiful homes in Fort Bend County – Each with their unique and special décor and stories. With the help of an incredible volunteer committee, over 500 volunteers, local entertainers and excited patrons, the event was better than ever! We welcomed 1,000 guests over the two day event. We could not have a home tour without our gracious homeowners and sponsors – THANK YOU!

To see photos from this event click here

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SPOTLIGHT

Giving Back: Helping Feed Families Thank you to the Houston Chapter of SEWA USA for their incredible food donation during the holiday season. They partnered with CAFB during our Elf Party give-away and when families, clients and volunteers came to get their bags of gifts they could were also given a bag of non-perishable food items.

SEWA is a Hindu faith-based volunteer group.

Through funding received from Fort Bend County’s AARPA grant, SEWA used that money towards causes in Fort Bend County, specifically food insecurities. We are blessed they chose to help the families served by Child Advocates of Fort Bend.

To learn more about this organization, please visit https://www.sewausa.org/.

Christmas at Stirling Castle On December 2nd, Cynthia Barratt and her team transformed their OCuSOFT Richmond Campus into an amazing Scottish Christmas!

Amazing food and entertainment was enjoyed by over 70 special guests. OCuSOFT, Cynthia and Nat donated 100% of the proceeds to Child Advocates of Fort Bend! We are so thankful to be the beneficiary to such a creative and amazing event.

Grand Opening!

Save the date for Friday, January 12th for Child Advocates of Fort Bend Benefit Day! 20% of all purchases from their new location at 10227 W. Grand Parkway S., Suite 104, Richmond, TX 77407 will be donated to CAFB! Enjoy a choice of 10" Bundt Cakes, single Bundtinis, Bundtinis by the dozen, and Bundtlet Towers.

Did you know that you can donate cars, airplanes, boats, motorcycles or trucks and select Child Advocates of Fort Bend to receive the proceeds?

Visit HERE for questions or contact Lisa at lmoore@cafb.org

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Many of us start the new year by setting goals and resolutions for the next twelve months. Oftentimes, we commit to FINALLY addressing a task we have been trying to avoid and ignore. Getting our finances organized and making important decisions regarding our financial wishes for the future can easily fall in the, “I’ll put that off for now” category. But January is actually a great time to get the year started off on the right fiscal foot!

do you have an appreciated asset that, if sold, will generate a hefty capital gains tax?

There’s a simple tax-saving option--donate the stock to CAFB and the organization will benefit from the full value of the gift, and you will receive the deduction, and avoid capital gains taxes. Or, make arrangements to bequest or gift a life insurance policy that is no longer needed by just completing a simple bequest form obtained from the company holding the policy.

We recently launched the “Forever Angels Legacy Society” to honor our most loyal donors who have committed to making a planned gift to Child Advocates of Fort Bend (CAFB). Gifts come in all shapes and sizes and are tailored to fit each donor’s individual needs and desires. For example,

We are here to help discuss ideas for creating a legacy gift that would be meaningful to you and your family. Please go to CAFB.org for more information or contact plannedgiving@cafb.org. We hope you will consider becoming a “Forever Angel” to let your legacy…. become their future.

DONOR SPOTLIGHT: Jim McClellan Jim McClellan has been involved with Child Advocates of Fort Bend for more than 30 years. To say he is a treasured volunteer and champion for the children of Fort Bend is an understatement!

Jim has generously supported CAFB for decades. About 5 years ago, he decided to take a new approach with his annual giving. He established a Donor Advised Fund (DAF). Jim says he set up the DAF because of the tax benefits. “I owned some appreciated securities and chose to bunch my charitable donations together to get the full benefit of the deduction.” Additionally, using this approach eliminates the need to track down annual charitable receipts because the donor receives a single receipt when the fund is created. The funds can also be distributed to chosen charities over a number of years. As a certified public accountant, Jim says, “He recommends DAFs to all of his clients who want to be charitable and want to save tax dollars.”

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Elf Party Wrap Up

By Lindsey Castellanos, Community Outreach Coordinator

What do the voices of the children we serve say during the holidays? They want simple things like a bike, a new hoodie, Pokemon cards, or lip gloss and hair ties. They also want things that we take for granted- a mom that isn’t worried about bills, a place to call their permanent home, a family that gets to be together instead of torn apart by trauma and grief.

We met a family of nine children that was struggling to simply make ends meet during this holiday season because they are trying to keep two families under one household to survive. Money doesn’t go far enough to cover extras like a doll house for their 8-yearold daughter or ear buds for their teenager, who had to give up their room and sleeps on a couch. It’s heartbreaking to hear the sacrifices families must make, but they do it because they know how to stick together. To see the tears streaming down caregiver’s faces as they are speechless over the packages we are stuffing into their cars… it gives us chills. “This is too much. We are the ones that give during the holidays. You can save some of this for other children. We have each other,” the dad told me. I smiled and said, “There’s a bag for each of your children.

We have enough for all nine kids and all the bags behind me are for others. The community wants to help the families we serve and this is why we are here.”

One mom we spoke to was quiet, hesitant to interact or talk with us, as we chatted while searching through a sea of red bags looking for her children’s gifts. I asked a few questions, trying to put her at ease and be a smiling face.

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You gave me back my Christmas spirit Finally, she said, “I was going to send my kids. out of the state to family for the holidays because I didn’t have anything for them. I can’t afford it this year.” Tears came again as she said, “I will have my babies with me for Christmas thanks to you guys.

They will have their Christmas and I will have them. They didn’t want to go. I had a job, but was fired because I had to bring my kids here for interviews and my boss just didn’t understand. We need you guys. All of us are in therapy now because this affected everything in our lives, even me.” We reminded her that SHE is the most important thing to them and our community generous to provide the toys and gifts for this exact reason. We loaded her trunk and backseat with all the toys and gifts as she simply wept. We were also able to give her two bags of food thanks to SEWA International providing bags of food to our donations this year.

The undertaking of the Elf Party is no small feat. We begin strategizing toy donations months in advance, perfecting our lists and sending them to hundreds of individuals, businesses, and organizations that collect all the toys on behalf of our children.

Something that really surprised us this year was an email from one of our volunteers.

She said in part, “I wasn’t looking forward to coming to get gifts for the teen boy I am working with. Teen boys are hard to get gifts for. There isn’t much for him and I didn’t want to face the disappointment that he wouldn’t get what he really wanted. But when I arrived and a staff member showed me everything that was picked out for him … it was exactly what was on his list! You gave me back my Christmas spirit.”

We never know the impact we have on others. We never know who needs encouragement.

The truth is the circumstances of children and families we serve are hard. There is a saying that ‘giving does more for the giver than it does for the receiver’. And it is so true. But the thing you might not know is that the GIVER is the person who searched the lists to select just the right gift to donate, the volunteer who organized the toys on the shelves, and the staff member that read the wish list for a child and saw the EXACT thing (can you imagine?) they were hoping for in our donations. It’s also the parent or caregiver that gives those gifts when they were feeling like they had been forgotten and that their circumstances were hopeless. And the receiver? Each beautiful child who opens a gift during the holiday season.

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our needs This month, we have immediate need for: Gift cards - all kinds in all amounts.

(VISA, Target, Walmart, Chick fil A, etc…)

After the holidays, we are completely out.

New Blankets New stuffed animals Additional items can be found on our WISH LIST

License to Help!

Did you know that Child Advocates of Fort Bend participates in the TX CASA Specialty License Plate Program?

You can order a custom license plate with the phrase “Big Voices for Little Texans”. Not only can you spread awareness and show your support for us but a portion of the cost of the plate goes to Texas CASA and the local programs to increase our statewide efforts to advocate for

every child in the foster care system.

To order your plate go to https://www.txdmv.gov/motorists/lice nse-plates and search for CASA under specialty plates OR visit your local tax assessor’s office and ask for the Court Appointed Special Advocate license plate.

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save these dates January 23 Youth Mental Health Aid 9am - 2pm Child Advocates of Fort Bend

January 30, 2024 Sip & Stroll 5:30pm - 7pm Contact Lisa at LMoore@cafb.org to reserve your spot

February 13, 2024 Darkness to Light Training 10am - 10m Child Advocates of Fort Bend Office

February 27, 2024 Faith Leaders Brunch 10am - noon Child Advocates of Fort Bend Office Contact Lindsey at LCastellanos@cafb.org

February 27, 2024 Sip & Stroll 5:30pm - 7pm Contact Lisa at LMoore@cafb.org to reserve your spot

“And now we welcome the new year.

Full of things that have never been.”

- Rainer Maria Rilke