Event Calendar

Join us for the CASA/GAL Book Club! We are meeting at Mustard Seed Cafe (Highland Square location) to socialize and enjoy heavy appetizers from 5:00pm-5:30pm and discuss the book from 5:30pm-7:00pm. Book Club is intended for CASA/GAL volunteers and like minded guests so please spread the word and invite a friend.

The CASA/GAL Program of Summit County book club provides an opportunity for CASA/GAL volunteers to connect and discuss topics related to child advocacy. The book club will enhance personal growth in addition to building comradery through group discussions.

Halfway Home: Race, Punishment, and the Afterlife of Mass Incarceration by Reuben Jonathan Miller

Miller’s book addresses the struggles of former prisoners who return to society and are often denied their right to vote, rejected by employers and landlords and left impoverished.

Miller shared he became interested in writing his book and started researching mass incarceration after serving as a volunteer chaplain for Cook County Jail, and after learning that his own father and brother were incarcerated. Miller also talked about the effects mass incarceration has on generations of children and families in the child welfare system.

“I can’t tell you how important family reunification services are. One in nine black children have a parent who’s been to prison; 2.7 million children have an incarcerated parent right now,” said Miller. “What family reunification services tries to do is try to prepare the child and the mother, father, parent, to reconnect and bridge the divide that’s caused by the absence that the prison enforces.”