|
What We Do Our History Our Children Our Supporters Our Leadership FAQ's En Espanol Career Opportunities |
What we do
The CASA volunteer has the
unique position of being the only person in court whose responsibility
it is to represent the child/ren’s best interests. The CASA volunteer
works to find needed services (medical, psychological, educational,
etc.) and also makes a recommendation to the judge about a safe and
permanent home for the child. The CASA volunteer and/or supervisor
attends all hearings and staffings concerning the child victim and works
alongside CPS, judges, attorneys, foster families, mental health
professionals and others who are involved in the child victim’s
situation. Without the help of CASA, the children are left to an
overburdened state system and attorneys ad litem who often do not even
have the time to visit with their children.
One of CASA’s goals is to
provide more children in state care with effective advocacy to achieve a
permanent home, free of abuse. We strive to see the children move toward
placement in a more timely manner. We also work to increase awareness of
resource deficiency to circumvent delays in services, which impact the
status of a child’s case and the time taken to reach permanency. This
also results in a savings of taxpayer money which would otherwise be
spent on attorneys for the children as well as their foster care. Most
importantly, the cycle of abuse, replacing destructive adult role models
with protective adults that model positive values and behaviors,
benefits not only the child but also the community where that child will
become an adult member.
|