Amid foster care upheaval, Five Acres hosts gala
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By Luke Netzley Pasadena Weekly Deputy Editor
he American child welfare system has been upended since the start of the pandemic as the past two years have seen lengthy suspensions of crucial services for foster children. According to two federal child welfare reports from November 2021 and January 2022, the number of children entering foster care dropped 14% in the first six months of the pandemic and numerous other child well-being indicators, including reports of child abuse, neglect and other forms of maltreatment dropped around 4%. In a joint statement during the onset of the pandemic in 2020, leaders from UNICEF and the World Health Organization stated that lockdown measures could potentially expose children to an increased risk of violence at home. The strains of the pandemic on the foster care system have been felt strongly in Los Angeles, as the leader of county’s child welfare system Bobby Cagle said he was stepping down last year due to overwhelming pressures. “They’re in turmoil, and these kids are left in the lurch trying to figure out, ‘Where are my parents?’” said Nicole Rasic, co-chair of the Five Acres 2022 fundraising gala. As a Southern California children’s foster care agency founded in 1888, Five Acres has served more than 10,000 children and family members across six counties. Their mission is to provide permanent, loving homes for all children in their care and to continuously develop effective means of caring for children and families in crisis. “You think about the pandemic and how it affected just us as adults,” Rasic explained. “I have children and it’s really affected them being in the house. Can you imagine when you’re already isolated and you don’t have a family? The need now is honestly greater than it ever has been.”
Five Acres Annual Gala WHEN: 5:30 p.m. Saturday, May 14 WHERE: The John Fehrenbacher Estate, 600 Columbia Street, Pasadena COST: $325 INFO: 5acres.org
Five Acres/Courtesy
Longtime friends and Five Acres supporters Nicole Rasic and Trish Gonzales will co-chair the organization’s 2022 fundraising gala in Pasadena.
To support the work that they do across Southern California, Five Acres is holding its annual gala on Saturday, May 14, at the historic Joe Fehrenbacher Estate in Pasadena. The event is their largest fundraiser of the year and was canceled last year due to the pandemic, placing a heightened importance on community involvement for this year’s gala. In consistency with the gala’s theme, “Starry Starry Night,” tall hedges will be draped with twinkling lights, glowing lanterns will float in the pool and children’s wishes on stars will greet guests as they enter the property to the evening’s festivities. “We had a hundred children relay their wishes to us and those wishes will be granted by people donating money,” gala co-chair Trish Gonzales said. “They’re very heart wrenching. We went over them yesterday and they’re anything from ‘I want to meet a YouTube star’ to ‘I’d like my little sister to have a mom.’” Donations through the Starry Starry Night gala will also help advance the work that Five Acres does with LA County foster care. “They support over 30,000 children in the Los Angeles County foster care system,” Gonzales said. “The end goal is to end up with permanency, for these children to be adopted. I think the percentile is close to 80% permanency, which is way above the average. “For the children that actually grow up within the community, a lot of them end up still staying with Five Acres in some capacity, whether working or being involving in the mentoring programs that they offer, too.” As longtime friends, Gonzales was introduced to Five Acres through Rasic, who became involved with the organization as a volunteer during independent study at high school. Rasic worked with Five Acres’ Respite Care service, which allows one family to support another for a short amount of time, whether it’s one day to one week, while the foster child’s family takes time for self-care or a family emergency. “I honestly just went to play with the kids and give them some sort of normalcy,” Rasic said. “The biggest takeaway for me when I was volunteering was that I couldn’t be another one of those people that was just here one day and gone the next. I needed to show them a regular appearance, that someone would always be there and show up.” Rasic has gone on to serve as a gala sponsor and committee member for the last six years, and is now a co-chair for this year’s gala alongside Gonzales. Both Rasic and Gonzales insisted that it does not take much to make a difference and that seemingly insignificant forms of support, such as a friendly face or encouraging word, can make an immense impact on children in need. “These kids are our future, and we can’t forget about them,” Gonzales said. “They are little, but way beyond their years, which is a very sad situation. Frequently, we’ll see siblings, the oldest being five, trying to take care of and make sure that they’re 3-year-old and their 2-year-old little brother or sister stay together. Can you imagine at 5 years old having that on your shoulders? As a mother, it just breaks my heart.” “They don’t get to select their parents,” Rasic said. “It’s not their fault that they’re there, and so community really needs to support them and show them that people care.”
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Home Instead Senior Care Pasadena/Submitted
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