California CASA Launches Statewide DEI Training Program

In March 2022, California CASA partnered with Washington Consulting Group to kick off a robust Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion “Train the Trainer” course for Board members and staff at local CASA programs. The nine-month-long training is structured to help achieve the network’s long-term goals of providing more culturally responsive advocacy for children in foster care, diversifying staff, volunteers, and Board members, and shifting the culture of the organization.     

The professional development series consists of three areas: Foundation, Theoretical, and Practical. Participants will gain knowledge in community building, dynamics of power and privilege, the DEI change process, engaging resistance, enhancing skills to facilitate effective interactions, and much more.  The “Training the Trainer” experience will include required reading, development work, and group discussion beyond the training room. Graduates of this program will go on to train other CASA volunteers, staff, and Board members at local programs across the state as the materials are integrated into the core curriculum for current and future advocates. The initiative is meant to help California CASA reach its goal of increasing understanding of issues relating to disproportionality and disparate outcomes within the local child welfare and court systems and improving advocacy for the state’s diverse population of foster children and families.