Show Up for Foster Youth

She was 16 years old, and she had already learned not to count on people.

I met Ellie through CASA's Be Bold program. I was a new volunteer. She was a teenager who had every reason not to trust another adult making another promise. So I didn't make promises. I just showed up. Week after week, I showed up.

We talked. We laughed. We worked through things that weren't easy. Slowly, something shifted, not because I did anything extraordinary, but because I kept coming back. For two years, I was Ellie's person. Consistent. Present. In her corner.

Not long after Ellie turned 18, she got into trouble with the law and disappeared. I don't know where she is today.

I think about her often.

A few months after she disappeared, I joined the CASA staff as Marketing Manager. Her story is exactly why I couldn't walk away.

Being on the inside only deepened what I already knew as a volunteer. I stopped seeing the work from a distance and started seeing the faces behind the cases - the weight these young people carry quietly, and the profound difference one steady, committed advocate can make in the life of a child who has stopped expecting anyone to stay.

There are children in our community right now navigating the foster care system without a single consistent adult in their lives. They are moving between homes and schools, appearing before judges in courtrooms they don't understand, aging toward 18 with no safety net waiting for them on the other side.

A CASA volunteer changes that. Not by fixing everything - but by showing up. By being the one person who keeps coming back.

That is what your donation makes possible.

When you give to CASA of Placer, Yuba & Sutter, you fund the training and support that turns everyday people into life-changing advocates. You keep active cases staffed. You make sure that when a child needs someone in their corner, someone is there.

I can't go back and change what happened to Ellie. But I can work every day to make sure the next child has every possible chance. And so can you.

Please give today. Five dollars, fifty dollars, five hundred dollars - every gift is a declaration that the children in our community are worth showing up for.

Because they are. Even when it's hard. Even when the ending isn't what you hoped.

Especially then.

With gratitude, 

Erin Anthony

Note: Ellie's name and identifying details have been changed to protect her privacy.