This week on The cityCURRENT Show our theme is Advocating for Children in Need.
Host Jeremy C. Park talks with Morgan Tansey, Deputy Director, Programs and Opportunities with Best Buddies of Tennessee, who highlights the organization’s history and efforts to establish a volunteer movement that creates opportunities for one-to-one friendships, integrated employment and leadership development for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. During the interview, Morgan discusses their school based programs that start in PreK and extend through college, their Citizens program for adults and ways the community can get engaged.
Then, Jeremy talks with Emily Layton, Executive Director of Williamson County CASA, who discusses how the organization advocates for abused and neglected children in the juvenile court system. Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) for Children is a network of nearly 1,000 community-based programs that recruit, train and support citizen-volunteers to advocate for the best interests of abused and neglected children in courtrooms and communities. Volunteer advocates – empowered directly by the courts – offer judges the critical information they need to ensure that each child’s rights and needs are being attended to while in foster care. During the interview, Emily talks about their model, the impact in Williamson County, how the community can help and more.
