There is a nine-year-old boy in Riverside County who painted his future self as a soccer player who helps the homeless at night. There is a teenage girl who handed her CASA volunteer a chapbook of poems she'd been quietly filling with her pain, her grief, and her determination to heal. There is a 12-year-old who wouldn't make eye contact, wouldn't say a word — until the week his advocate found a shelter for his abandoned dog, and something in him finally opened.
These are the children Voices for Children (VFC) exists for. And right now, in our community, 130 children just like them are waiting for someone to show up.
May is National Foster Care Month — and for VFC, it is the most critical time of year to ask Temecula to pay attention.
45 Years of Changing Lives
In October 2025, Voices for Children marked 45 years of advocacy at their Starry Starry Night gala — raising approximately $1.3 million in a single evening to continue their mission. It was a milestone worth celebrating. But for VFC, anniversaries are not about looking back. They are about what still needs to be done.
For 45 years, VFC has been building something vital in this region — a network of trained, passionate volunteer advocates serving children in foster care across Riverside and San Diego Counties. What began as a mission to ensure no child navigates the court system alone has grown into an organization that has touched thousands of young lives, one consistent, caring adult at a time.
Children in foster care have already experienced abuse and neglect. What follows is often more instability — new homes, new schools, new caregivers, new everything. A CASA volunteer steps into that uncertainty and becomes the one constant. They are not caseworkers or therapists. They are something rarer: a person who chooses a child, learns their story, advocates for their needs in court and in life, and simply does not give up on them.
What One Person Can Do
CASA Peggy has advocated for four children over the past five years. Her current youth, came into her life in May 2022 — seventeen years old and seven months pregnant. Peggy became her shoulder to lean on, her steady presence through new motherhood, and a tireless guide through the healthcare system to make sure both her and her baby received the care they needed.
She didn't just advocate. She showed up — every week, through every challenge — with perseverance and without judgment.
"Becoming a CASA has changed my lens on the world," Peggy shares. "I am a better person as a result, infinitely more empathetic and less judgmental of others, more patient, persevering, and above all, more grateful for the blessings I have in my life. It has been an honor to serve as a CASA in the community."
That is what one woman choosing one child can do. Multiply that by a community, and you begin to understand what VFC is building.
The Waitlist That Cannot Wait
Right now, 130 children in Riverside and San Diego Counties are navigating foster care without a CASA in their corner. VFC has the training, the infrastructure, and the mission. What they need is more people — people like Peggy, like the women in this community who already know how to show up for others — willing to step forward.
No special background is required. VFC provides all the training and support volunteers need. The time commitment is meaningful but manageable, and the impact, as every CASA will tell you, transforms both the child and the volunteer.
A child heard. A life changed.
To learn more, attend a free virtual information session, or make a gift that empowers a CASA volunteer, visit speakupnow.org