NON PROFITS CASA Kendall County
Buys Yorkville Clubhouse April was Childhood Abuse Prevention Month, a
perfect time for CASA Kendall County (Court Appointed Special Advocates), an organization that works with abused children, to announce this year that Congresswoman Lauren Underwood had obtained $200,000 to be used to purchase a CASA clubhouse at 301 East Van Emmon St. in Yorkville. Te 1,300-square-foot house located on one-third
acre of land will be used as a meeting place for parents and their children who have been removed from parental control by the court and placed in foster care, according to CASA Kendall County’s Executive Director Jennifer Gilbert. “I’ve been working in child welfare for over a
decade,” Gilbert said. “Tere has been nowhere in Kendall County where a child can spend meaningful time with their parents, where we can watch them interact and observe the bond between parent and child.” Children usually see their parents only one or two
hours a week under supervision. How parents and children interact is one of the factors that helps determine if a child will be allowed to return to living with its parents. Without a comfortable home environment to observe child-parent interaction, its been hard for CASA advocates to get a good idea of any progress that has been made, Gilbert said. “We’ve been trying to solve this huge deficit in
Kendall County. We wanted to give the children a few hours of safe, home-like experiences where they can come be with their parents, a few hours where that sort of trauma of being in the system is mitigated in an environment where they could just be a family. It’s hard when we only have a McDonald’s or a library where they can meet. We are trying to get children returned to their homes.”
Guest speakers Kendall County States Atty. Eric Weiss and Heidi Baird, wife of Kendall County Sheriff Dwight Baird, welcome visitors to CASA’s first Hands Around the Clubhouse.
In addition to a living room, playroom, kitchen,
sleeping areas, and office space, the house, Gilbert says, has the neatest nooks and crannies. Tey are intending to paint the house blue, with a red door and white shutters to make it look like a dollhouse, and there are plans to install an interior slide between floors. “We’ve had one family that’s already been using
the house, visiting every week,” Gilbert said. “Tey know the house. Mom says when they are together, they feel like home.” During the pandemic, the number of children needing
supervision has risen sharply. Tere is a need for more advocates. For more information on advocate training sessions, or items needed to furnish the clubhouse, go to
casakendallcounty.org or visit CASA’s wishlist on Amazon.
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