WHAT’S HAPPENING?
12/11/25 at 6:30PM – We will have our final event of the year at the Eagles Lodge. This will be a Christmas Trivia event on Thursday, December 11. Doors will open at 6PM, game starts at 6:30. Teams of up to 8 people each – $15 per person to play. It’s going to be a fun and interesting night of Christmas Trivia! (no pre-registration required)
SOME INFORMATION ABOUT COCO!
Coco, our facility dog, has been hard at work for two months now. She has now sat with 12 children s they tell us about their experience of abuse or trauma.
She is learning to be a helpful member of our team more and more each day.
If you would like to help support Coco and her ongoing health issues and expenses, you can go here on our website to donate directly to her care.
IN THE KNOW
In order to meet our mission of not only protecting children experiencing abuse, but providing prevention education to our community, our Executive Director was recently on KQ2‘s Live at 5 program to discuss online safety. How can parents keep their kids safer online? We have some helpful checklists you can access about specific steps you can take for their safety.
The hard part is – it takes work and repeated conversations to be effective. Kids learn by doing and they are going to make some mistakes. We have to guide them on their online journey just as we would regarding crossing the street or walking in a busy parking lot. It’s just as dangerous.
FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
It’s year-end giving time. If you are receiving this newsletter, you may already be a donor to the CAC. If so, a very heartfelt thank you from all of us at Voices of Courage.
I read an article recently that had a great metaphor about how organizations like ours are funded. Vu Le, in an article from Nonprofit AF, said this about grant funding: Imagine a village on fire and we, the nonprofits, are like the firefighters trying to put out the flames. Our funders provide dollars so we can purchase water and hoses, the firetrucks and to pay the firefighters’ salaries.
Then he says, some funders only want to pay for the water but not the hoses. We have to write a different grant for those and wait another 6-12 months to see if we will be granted the hoses. And yet another grant to pay salaries, and another for the truck.
Some will help us put out fires for only one year, then we have to start the process all over again to extinguish the flames next year.
In the meantime, the village is on fire and it’s spreading fast.
In our case, that “fire” is children in crisis. And without help from everyone, the fire spreads as we wait.
If this metaphor helps you understand grant funding a little better, that’s great. It helps explain why we need local support from donors like you. We all have the responsibility to keep children safe in our communities. Your dollars make all the difference in helping us keep the fire from spreading out of control.
If you are considering a year-end donation this year, we invite you to make your most generous gift to our mission. Together, we can bring safety, protection and healing to the children who need us most.
Melissa Birdsell
p.s. Don’t forget that your donation of $100 or more qualifies for the Missouri Champion for Children Tax Credit – recently increased to 70%! This means that a gift of $1,000 may cost you as little as $300! (consult with your tax professional or visit the Missouri Department of Revenue’s page for more information!)
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
St. Joseph School District's Plan 4BR
When a community faces a crisis, it becomes the responsibility of members of that community to do their part to shield children from any associated anxiety as much as possible.
Many people believe our community has been facing crisis for some time in our school district and the choices, or lack thereof, they have made.
We here at the CAC have kept a close eye on this matter as it has evolved over time. Now that a decision has finally (hopefully) been made about a path forward, we have been concerned about the responses by some community members. Specifically, we are seeing language such as “our children are going to be traumatized”.
You can read further about why this is concerning for us and some suggestions and thoughts we want to add to the conversation. These suggestions are things we, as the adults in our community, can do to protect kids from unnecessary anxiety and some things the District could do as well. These suggestions may already be on the District’s radar, but they are here for consideration.
#itisyourbusiness Missouri Child Abuse & Neglect Hotline 800-392-3738