CASA NE OKLAHOMA

Good morning, good morning, good morning. Welcome, welcome, welcome, idiot.

Is a time now for our community connection right here on K one, the one you trust. And we're talking with our friends from CASA of Northeast Oklahoma.

And boy do we have friends.

Hello, ladies, we have Lori, Emily and Alisha, and this is really something else. And we've got a doll twich we're going to explain here in just a little bit. This one's wearing clothes this year, which I'm quite happy about that. Emily, first off, tell us a little bit about KASA Northeast Oklahoma.

So, KASA Northeast Oklahoma is a nonprofit and we recruit and trained volunteers and they become advocates for children in foster care.

Now, these kids don't really have a voice. They're just kids. They don't know the legal system.

That's right, that's right, And so we try and get people in the community who want to step up and be that voice for the kids.

And they get to know the kids. They talk to.

Their families, their teachers, anybody that can tell us what's going on with that kid. And then we go to court and we're their voice in court.

So now Alicia we're going to get to the doll here in just a second. Laurie, you're an advocate coordinator here in Bartlesville and your mission is to find advocates.

Correct.

Yes, we desperately need more volunteers. Lots of foster kids out there without a voice, and so we are looking for people who want to help kids have that voice. Just get to know foster kids and their situations and.

Well, how do we go about being a Do you have to go to school for this? No?

I it is a commitment, but it's a worthwhile one. There's training that we give them. It's a thirty hour training and they go through that and we give them all the information that they need to know how to go out there confidently and meet with the foster families and the kids and write reports for the judge.

And yeah, my goodness sakes. You know, it sounds like a lot, but it's.

You got to have a heart, yes, And the things that you put a lot of work into are often the most rewarding things in your life. And I think with this volunteer opportunity, it's super rewarding because you do work so hard at it.

And now I've had some family members who have done this line of work in Illinois and Indiana, and it is it is one that your heart better be in it.

Yes, and it's all for the right reasons. Yes.

Now we've got we've got a nice doll here, interesting fellaut here and I guess we're going to talk to Ala, she's one of the board members.

You're ring here for Martin Hill. A little bit about what we got going on here with the doll.

So this is a paper doll.

We're doing a fundraiser this spring for each county in northeast Oklahoma, and this little guy kind of represents one of the foster kids who needs an advocate. So by having this little gentleman out there in the community or you know, little girl right there, there's both, they can really represent that. And people can sponsor the doll and

So g is chilly little paper doll. Let's get some clothes on that paper doll. Yes, get some toothbrushes. Yeah, and also some money would be a good thing.

That would be great.

It would be that stuff that don't clank really works good, you know. But but this is really what it's all about.

Now. You guys had a ball with this last year.

And I just remember Mark Ogle, who's somewhere in the vicinity here, I know he's with an earshot. He was really excited about this last year. And I understand that we had a little bit of a race down to the final wire, didn't we.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's a battle between each of the counties.

Yeah, so you know sponsor here in Bartlesville that goes towards Bartlesville's a mountain. So yeah, I got a spreadsheet and we're competing all the counties against each other to see who's going to raise the moves.

So now I understand we did something with coffee, cup of sleeves. Hold that up here for the camera, just kind of there you go here you see it. Now, if you were at a crossing second and you got a coffee, you got one of these and how did that work out? Because I know you probably do it again. I'm just getting ahead of the gate because that Mark fellut here he'll be haring and goes, hey you remember what we did?

Okay, go ahead.

Yeah.

So we had these coffee sleeves printed up.

They have our logo on it, they have it shouldn't hurt to be a child, which is kind of something that we always say, and it's got our QR code on the back and we just got these out too. Restaurants, coffee shops, everywhere we could think of that would sell a drink or sell and it's free to them, and we just said, hey, would you like to help us

Now, LORI, part of being an advocate also means that hey pay attention, right, Yes, So this awareness campaign that really pays the big dividends. At least people are familiar with what you're trying to get accomplished and they're not saying, well, what do you want me to do. They got an idea what's going on.

Yes, it's helpful to get your name out there so people know what's happening. And a lot of people have never heard of KASA, So it's.

You know, a lot of people are kind of blind to the idea that there are kids in trouble that happened someplace else. Yes, that happens in a big city. It didn't happen. It happens a lot, and it's kept quiet. That's true, and we kind of need to draw some attention to it.

That's true. There are lots of kids in our county, right here in Bartlesville and the neighboring cities. But yeah, we all need to open our eye that there's a lot of foster kids. There's a lot of kids suffering every day.

And yeah, how did you get to become a board member?

Oh, it was a it was a happy accident.

Actually, the way it always happens, that the way you always find board members.

Yeah, tell us about it.

I was actually at the doctor's office. I moved here with kind of a goal to possibly start my own not for profit organization. Well, I stumbled upon actually a pamphlet, a little flyer that they have out in the different offices. And I looked down and I picked it up. Right, You're thinking, oh, there's something on the floor. I'm going to pick it up, and I'm looking for the little plastic sleeve that it goes in because I'm not reading it because I'm busy, and I stop and there's no

And you've got the heart for it.

You already had the mind to do something positive in the community, and this just matched up right with everything in your core beliefs, right.

So it was a good, little, happy accident.

And now she's a board member holding a happy little at all. Him Timmy, Jimmy, he doesn't have a.

Lot of people name them. They go all out. They'll be they'll call us back.

They'll say I want Sally back from last year. And Mark's like, Okay, I gotta go figure out who's Sally.

Want to make sure I get you Sally. Because they get serious about it.

I bet they do.

Them have wigs like yesterday when we're trying to get some out of closet.

Then the wig was stuck on somebody's foot. It's a little yarn.

Wig and wow.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's even a rough life being at all, hopefully not hopefully not.

Yeah, you know, yeah, that's right, taking good care.

Oh that's great. And once again they just to get a get ahold of you for the adult.

Well, actually you can contact Mark Mark Ogle.

Yeah, he's somewhere in the building.

He's somewhere in this room.

He or so. But yeah, you can contact Mark and he'll get you set up. And we have different levels of sponsorship.

Let's go for it. Yeah.

Yeah, So we have the one hundred dollars sponsorship, which is the individual you get one doll. Got the bronze sponsorship for two fifty, you get two of these dolls. You've got the Silver at five hundred and you'll get three dolls. Gold is seven to fifty and you get four, and then Platinum is one thousand and you get five dolls.

Man, you got a family going there, Yeah, yeah, there there, we're talking.

You can just load them all up and get around.

Get him dressed. Yeah, put them in the station. Where you can go for a drive.

Yeah, we'll not give you weird looks.

No, Mark, who's somewhere in the building, told me that people were looking at him because he had this doll in the front seat.

They're like, what the hell, what's he doing?

He just loads up his vehicle with him and drives them all.

Around on kids, We're done some.

Town with some wooden dolls. Don't don't worry about it.

Now.

Mark's been a foster parent.

I mean imagine he's had a car load of real kids.

Just the oval is nothing to see here. There we go comfort.

Yeah, well this is great.

And where can we find out more?

Do you have a website or a Facebook page where you have current events?

We have both of those.

Actually, our facebook is KASA Northeast Oklahoma.

That should be able to find us on Facebook.

Our website is www dot casa A s A n E Okay, Northeast Oklahoma dot org.

All right, and then just put the casa any Okay on the Facebook searchable whatever.

Yeah, my kids do that.

Yeah, yeah, dad needs Okay.

Yeah, they'll they'll get you there.

So, Glorie, I got to ask you what drove you to do this? What compelled you to be a part of CAUSA.

So I went back to school as an adult after my kids had grown, and I was in social work and I was looking for what's it called internship at the end of my college and I had a friend who was a Costa volunteer and she recommended volunteering or doing my internship at COSO. So she hooked me up. And then when I found out who they were and what they did after my internship, I wanted to be a volunteer because I thought it was a great organization

Wow, I went to work and my goodness sakes yea, and finding out about it is the big part, yes, And this is why we're here, Yes, to help more people find out about content and the great work that we do for children who need a voice neeck or you know you think that you know kids got a lawyer or something like that.

Not always.

They have so many cases that they don't have the time to.

Go one on one.

Yeah, to get to know the situation.

Do you get to know the kids a little bit more? On a personal basis other than just how you buy.

What can they do for you?

Yes, you're in their homes once a month, visiting with the kids, invested in them, yep, and you follow the case from beginning to end, so you're you are able to see what happens, like what the outcome is.

Isn't that kind of special for YouTube to see how this process works, you know, from Lori's end all the way to the the end product of getting justice for the kids.

Yeah. I actually originally was interested in being a volunteer, but we found out I was too much of the softy to maybe go to court and so and then.

We you know, after crying, become a board.

I've done a.

Lot in that kind of business and vironment, so I feel like my contribution there.

Is from a position of strength where we're future talents, you.

Know, running an organization, you know, as Emily does. There's a lot to it, policies, procedures and things. So I feel like I'm able to contribute, you know there as well. So it's a really good mission these kids. You know, there's numbers on Washington County. I think there was thirty nine kids until last year in Washington County. That needed an advocate and that really helped them move along. A lot of them were reunited with their families, which is wonderful,

So and how they grow up in this world tells you how they are going to view the world when they get to be older, and they need the best possible world growing up.

Yeah.

So now, Emily, I got to ask you this, how you keep the wheels on this bus, because.

Man, it seems like you got a lot going on.

Sometimes I feel like I'm losing nuts and bolts and trying to catch those wheels. But you know, I got a great staff, I got a great board, We have amazing volunteers, so you know, it's just kind of all of us working together to do it.

You know, we can't we can't talk.

About the kids in their situation, you know, in the communities. That's the thing why the community doesn't know because we can't go talk about little Timmy's case. So that's what Timmy's here to represent, is that kid in foster care that is in this area that we can't be talking about, you know, because it's private.

The cases are confidential.

So that's the thing is we need the community support to step up, but we can't go out and talk about the cases. So that's why people think it's not happening.

I think, quickly, how do we get the paper dolls in our community and to get the.

Awareness going here.

They can call our office, or they can call Mark's number, or they can email number or email Mark.

So all right, and we'll have that information. Okay, the uh little news story that we're gonna have a little bit later today.

Okay.

Yeah, and by the way, there's Facebook Live. You can use that forever and ever and ever. You can use that to your get to get the word out too.

Yeah, and I want to go to the Facebook. You can always just send a message as well. Go in and taste like it, send a message and we'll you'll find you and yeah, you'll get your chipped up with the doll. Sponsor a doll donate. You can go to the website and donate easily as well. Yeah, ACASA Anyokay dot org. There's a donation button if you want to just do that, if that's kind of what you can do right now to contribute, or if you want to volunteer either way.

Yeah, that's on our website faces.

Yeah, there's a big red button up to volunteer, donate to say.

Also, if you're a softie, it's okay to also be a volunteer. I'm a pretty big softie. And you get the strength that you need as they train you what you should do and helps. So don't be afraid if you're a softy, you can still do this.

I want to thank you all for coming by. And if you find that Mark fellow hanging around, you know, you might want to ride back to Claremore and row.

Him in my car.

I'll have to take him back.

Okay, CASA Northeast Oklahoma, thank you,