Katherine Carrasco learned about volunteering with the Children’s Foundation of America through a newsletter email to Trinity Youth Services staff. She is a first-year graduate student in the school of social work at California State University, San Bernardino and her interest in working with children led her to Trinitys’ Rancho Cucamonga foster care office for an internship. Her responsibilities include auditing the files of foster children and resource parents, working with Treatment Foster Care Social Workers on their cases and monitoring visits with foster children and their natural families.

“I have learned so much at Trinity in my time here. Before my internship, I did not have the slightest idea how the foster care system worked,” Katherine said. Through her experience with Trinity, she now has an understanding of the standards to become a resource parent, the importance of collaboration between the foster agency and the county and how to work with trauma-affected youth.

Donating Time

In the past few months, she has volunteered with the Children’s Foundation of America to help with Child Abuse Prevention Month outreach, mailing spring appeals, assembling spring goodie baskets and making scarves for foster children. She hopes to continue volunteering with the Foundation and encourages others to volunteer as well.

“Working alongside others with the same interests is motivating and heart-felt,” she said. “I don’t have a large amount of money to donate, but I have the time to help and volunteer for the cause.”

Hobbies

Outside of volunteering, Katherine enjoys hiking and reading and owns about 450 books in her home library. Her favorite young adult novels are the Harry Potter, Hunger Games and Divergent series. She even named her first motorcycle Beatrice after the main character in Divergent.

“I can keep going and going about my books,” she said. “My favorite book? That’s a hard question when I have read so many!”

Be the Difference

“Helping children and foster youth in the community is a feeling that cannot be found elsewhere,” Katherine said. Click here to find out more about volunteering with the Children’s Foundation of America.

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Marie Maghuyop, AmeriCorps VIP Fellow
Marie is serving with the Children’s Foundation of America as an AmeriCorps VIP (Volunteer Infrastructure Project) Fellow. Her main goal as a VIP Fellow is to expand the volunteer programs at the Foundation and develop an effective, sustainable volunteer infrastructure. She creates content for social media, engages with volunteers and supports the Foundation team with coordinating events and volunteer opportunities. Marie has earned two associate’s degrees from San Bernardino Valley College and a bachelor’s degree in Communication Studies from California State University, Fullerton. She has always been driven to do meaningful work by helping others and is excited to inspire volunteerism in the community. In her free time, she enjoys going to Disneyland, writing, playing ukulele and board games, and dancing.