Awareness of child abuse needs to be raised in America.
Spreading awareness of this sad issue is vital - it saves lives. The National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System is the primary source of national information on abused and neglected children. The data NCANDS records on abused children is alarming.
Equally alarming is the information in a recently published article titled "Failed to Death: System was set up to Fail." This article brings to light the "unmanageable" job of a caseworker, "With the safety of dozens of kids on their conscience, caseworkers go alone to knock on the doors of hostile parents - to ask them what they feed their children and whether they hit them. They follow a checklist, ticking off questions and taking down answers on a state-standardized form. And they worry a kid in their care might die, a fear that keeps them up at night."
CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates), a nonprofit organization, is the answer to many of the concerns of our social service system. CASA volunteers are trained and appointed by judges to advocate for abused and neglected children. The volunteers do this by collecting information from the child, checking their medical/education/home history, and then organize this collected data in court to allow the judge to make an educated decision. They are a great extra pair of eyes to have around to check and be sure all processes of the caseworkers are done correctly.