Alaina and Natalie’s parents had been arrested, leaving the girls with no safe or permanent home. After a short stay with extended family, they were placed in foster care in Dallas. Soon they were assigned a Dallas CASA volunteer, Rebecca, to help them them navigate a complex child welfare system in a frightening time.

At Rebecca’s first visit, the scared little girls clung to each other and asked for “Nana.” Rebecca soon found “Nana,” the girls’ great-grandmother. As a home health aide with a one-bedroom apartment, Nana could not take the girls in, but Rebecca facilitated weekly visits for the girls with Nana through Child Protective Services. Despite the visits with Nana, the girls struggled in foster care. Their foster family reported they had extreme mood swings, tantrums and defiance. They were each placed on powerful psychotropic medications. They barely ate and fell off the growth charts for their ages.

As their parents struggled to stay on track with drug rehabilitation, visits grew infrequent only compounding the girls’ stress. A year into foster care, the girls’ parents had made no progress and the court terminated their parental rights.

What can be done to help these two little girls? How can two little girls with major behavioral issues find a permanent home? Will they still get to see Nana? Read about what happens next.

Join us for North Texas Giving Day Sept. 22, and learn more about Alaina and Natalie. On North Texas Giving Day, Communities Foundation of Texas matches a percentage of every donation North Texans make to their favorite charities. For $1,910 per year, Dallas CASA can provide training and supervision for an advocate to help an abused child have a safe and permanent home. In 2015 on North Texas Giving Day, Dallas CASA supporters donated more than $80,000 to Dallas CASA, helping us serve more of North Texas’ most vulnerable children with one constant, caring adult looking out for each of them.

Children like Alaina and Natalie need our help and protection, and we need your help to make that possible.