Catoosa, Dade and Walker Counties have an average of 150 children in foster care on any given day.

These children can’t stay in their homes because dad has a bad meth habit or mom sometimes disappears for days. Perhaps, they can’t stay in their homes because they have been beaten or molested.

One of them may be the seven-year old boy in your son’s class who is a nut for airplanes or the teenager who checked you out at the grocery store last Saturday.

State confidentiality laws keep most of us from knowing who they are. By preventing schoolmates or strangers from learning the details of abuse, the laws can ease the shame and humiliation these kids already feel.

But the children involved are already lonely and scared, and the privacy bubble the law creates renders them all but invisible — a situation that can make them feel even worse.

You can let these children know that someone notices them, someone cares.

Become a CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate) volunteer.

CASA volunteers advocate for the needs of abused and neglected children in foster care in Catoosa, Dade and Walker Counties. CASA volunteers serve as the eyes and ears of the juvenile court judges. CASA volunteers are often the one constant in a foster child’s life. To volunteer, you must be 21-years-old, have a desire to help children, take 30 hours of training along with 10 hours of observation, be able to pass a background check and have basic computer skills.

Kristie Taylor is director of the Lookout Mountain CASA program. If you would like to make a difference in the life of an abused or neglected child, please contact her at lmcasa.ktaylor@gmail.com, 423-362-1834 or visit their Facebook page at facebook.com/LookoutMountainCASA.