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Wells Fargo Donates $10,000 to Texas CASA

^{Published on 2012-11-15 06:17:06 - Market Wire}
 

Wells Fargo Donates $10,000 to Texas CASA -- AUSTIN, Texas, Nov. 15, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --

AUSTIN, Texas, Nov. 15, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Wells Fargo recently awarded Texas CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates®) a $10,000 grant to fund five cultural development trainings in Texas for volunteers, social workers, attorneys and others who work with children in the foster care system.

The grant underwrites the Knowing Who You Are (KWYA) training which is an interactive workshop that helps child advocates guide children in foster care in their development of healthy racial and ethnic identities. The training is made available to child welfare advocates who work with children who, through no fault of their own, are uprooted from their families and communities and too often placed in distant communities with foster parents who do not look like them.

"We are deeply grateful for Wells Fargo's continued commitment to improving the lives of foster children in Texas," said Vicki Spriggs, chief executive officer of Texas CASA. "We believe it is imperative tooffer information and tools that engage and empower our advocates and others in the child welfare system to have frank and honest conversations around race and ethnicity. Helping children be comfortable and even proud of their heritage must be part of the discussions and decisions about what is in a child's best interest.

Wells Fargo has been a champion for Texas children and has helped Texas CASA's efforts to recruit CASA volunteers and to ensure that every child in foster care that needs a CASA volunteer has one.

"Wells Fargo is proud to support Texas CASA because of the importance of its mission - to partner with its communities and be a voice for abused and neglected children," said Jana Teis, project manager for Wells Fargo. "And I am proud to work for Wells Fargo, because they encourage us to volunteer for great nonprofit organizations like Texas CASA, where I serve on the board. Wells Fargo's funding will allow Texas CASA to offer Knowing Who You Are training to volunteers throughout the state."

About Texas CASA
Austin-based Texas CASA is the statewide association of 69 local CASA programs that with more than 7,200 well-trained volunteers served nearly 23,000 children in 206 of the 254 counties. Texas CASA provides funding, training and technical assistance to the staff, board and volunteers of the 69 member programs.

CASA volunteers are regular people who have chosen to speak up for abused and neglected children in their community. CASA volunteers are screened and trained then appointed by the court to advocate for the best interests of a children in the foster care system. Often the CASA volunteer is the one constant in a child's life while he or she goes through the over-burdened foster care system. CASA volunteers work to move the children through foster care and into safe permanent homes as quickly as possible. More than half the children in foster care do not have CASA volunteers. For more information, please visit [ www.TexasCASA.org ].

About Wells Fargo & Company
Wells Fargo& Company (NYSE: [ WFC ]) is a nationwide, diversified, community-based financial services company with $1.4 trillion in assets. Founded in 1852 and headquartered in San Francisco, Wells Fargo provides banking, insurance, investments, mortgage, and consumer and commercial finance through more than 9,000 stores, 12,000 ATMs, the Internet (wellsfargo.com), and has offices in more than 35 countries to support the bank's customers who conduct business in the global economy. We want to help all of our customers succeed financially and support long-term economic growth and improved quality of life for everyone in our communities. In 2011, the Company invested $213.5 million in grants in 19,000 nonprofits, and team members contributed more than 1.5 million volunteer hours around the country. For more information, please visit: [ www.wellsfargo.com/about/csr ].

Contact:  Katherine Kerr, Communications/PR Manager
Texas CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates®)
Office: (512) 610-6120  Cell:  (512) 705-7696
Email:  [ kkerr@texasCASA.org ] 

SOURCE Texas CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates)