CASA, Children's Haven receive grants for infrastructure improvements

John Hacker, The Joplin Globe, Mo.
·3 min read

Jan. 15—Children's Haven of Southwest Missouri and Jasper County Court Appointed Special Advocates for Children, or CASA, received large grants last week.

Children's Haven of Southwest Missouri received $58,662 and Jasper County CASA received $24,834 from the Community Foundation of the Ozarks, in partnership with Children's Trust Fund.

The grants are part of the Facility Improvement and Infrastructure Grant Program and will support improvements to family spaces for clients and visitors as well as enhancements to technology and cybersecurity.

A total of $670,000 was granted to 12 agencies addressing child abuse and neglect in the foundation's service area of central and southern Missouri on Jan. 9.

"The Children's Trust Fund has deep respect for the Community Foundation of the Ozarks and is honored to work with them on funding agencies that are at the front lines of protecting Missouri children," Emily van Schenkhof, executive director of Children's Trust Fund, said in a statement. "We look forward to seeing the good work and impact in the CFO's region from this funding."

Children's Haven

Children's Haven Executive Director Stephanie Theis said the center's grant will go in part to renovate the family visiting room.

"We're going to update and make our family visiting room more friendly and engaging so parents can spend quality time with their kids in there and have lots of activities for them to do and be a really joy-filled room," Theis said. "We are going to do some technology infrastructure upgrades for safety as well."

Theis said the grant will help Children's Haven make upgrades that it wouldn't have been able to afford otherwise.

"Updating the family visiting room is a dream, upgrading the technology is a need that I just didn't know how we were going to be able to accomplish," she said. "So the forethought with Children's Trust Fund, Community Foundation of the Ozarks and really, state Rep. Cody Smith, who secured those funds — the long-term impact that those funds will provide to area nonprofits in Missouri is amazing."

Theis said construction on the family room should begin in the next couple of weeks.

Jasper County CASA

Debi Koelkebeck, executive director of the Jasper County CASA, said that group's money will go to a much-needed computer upgrade.

She said it was the second time the group has received money from the Children's Trust Fund.

"We originally got some money from this program more than a year ago for our new building," she said. "We had a capital campaign, and the Children's Trust Fund helped us meet that campaign along with a lot of other donors and area foundations. Then there was some remaining money, and that's what this round we just received this grant was from, what was left from that ARPA money in 2021."

ARPA stands for the federal American Rescue Plan Act, signed into law in 2021, to provide funding for states and local governments to mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Koelkebeck said the agency is only 5 years old and has been limping along on inexpensive computers.

"We had started with just me in an office five years ago, and when I started out, I bought the cheapest computer I could at Best Buy," she said. "Then as we added staff, we continued to buy just the basic model computers, and it became a nightmare. We were constantly out of memory, cybersecurity was a concern, we just really didn't have a professional-level system, and we deal with really confidential information. This grant has been a blessing for us to be able to get seven new computers and monitors for staff and the server and firewall. It will allow us to have really stable technology and be able to count on it. It's truly money that I wouldn't have had to spend on new computers."