Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA)
Local CASA Programs recruit, screen, train and support citizen volunteers to become Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASAs). They are well-trained volunteers who, when authorized by a judge, do fact finding and speak for the best interests of abused and neglected children in court. Most CASA volunteers are able to remain with the case until the child or sibling group achieves permanency. When a child has a Court Appointed Special Advocate to speak for them, positive things happen! Read more...

WHAT IS CASA?
The CASA concept is based on the commitment that every child has the right to a safe, permanent home. In court jurisdictions that have adopted the program, the juvenile or family court judge turns to a specially trained pool of CASA volunteers each time a case involving a child is received.

The judge appoints a volunteer to the child's case and empowers them through a court order, enabling them to access important contacts and records needed to gain insight into the child’s situation. The volunteer becomes an official part of the judicial proceedings, working alongside attorneys and social workers as an appointed officer of the court. Unlike attorneys and social workers, however, the CASA volunteer speaks exclusively for the child's best interests. By handling only one or two cases at a time (compared to a Children and Youth caseworker's average load of 20-30), the CASA volunteer has time to gather facts, evaluate and gain enough insight to make a conclusion on what is in the child's best interest, providing and independent report with recommendations to the judge?

HISTORY OF CASA
In 1976, Superior Court Judge David Soukup of Seattle, WA, saw a recurring problem in his courtroom:
“In criminal and civil cases, even though there were always many different points of view, you walked out of the courthouse at the end of the day and you said, ‘I’ve done my best; I can live with the decision,’ he explains.

“But when you’re involved with a child and you’re trying to decide what to do to facilitate that child’s growth into a mature and happy adult, you don’t feel like you have sufficient information to allow you to make the right decision. You can’t walk away and leave them at the courthouse at 4 o’clock. You wonder, ‘Do I really know everything I should? Have I really been told all of the different things? Is this really right?”

To ensure he was getting all the facts and the long-term welfare of each child was being represented, the Seattle judge came up with an idea that would change America's judicial procedure and the lives of thousands of children. He obtained funding to recruit and train community volunteers to step into courtrooms on behalf of the children: the Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) volunteers.

This unique concept was implemented in Seattle as a pilot program in January 1977. During that first year, the program provided 110 trained CASA volunteers for 498 children in 376 dependency cases.

Today, there are more than 68,000 advocates serving in 1,018 state and local program offices nationwide. CASA programs across the country are known by several different names, including Guardian ad Litem, Child Advocates and Voices for Children.

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