June is nationally recognized as Reunification Month—a critical opportunity to share the importance of children and youth in foster care reunifying with their family. At the National CASA/GAL Association for Children, we know that connections to family give children and youth a sense of belonging and love. Our model for best-interest advocacy is driven by the guiding principle that children grow and develop best when they can safely be with their family.
At our National CASA/GAL 2022 Annual Conference earlier this month in Seattle, the importance of strengthening and keeping families together served as a central theme for the learning, exchange and celebration we engaged in. Over 840 volunteers, staff, partners and peers heard from speakers such as Zion Clark – an athlete and author – who found family just days before aging out of care – and Andrea Elliott, two-time Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and author of Invisible Child, about the human cost to structural inequality and the importance of family.
