About Colorado CASA

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Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) is based on the belief that every child has the right to a safe, permanent home. By thoroughly exploring each child's background, dedicated and intensively trained CASA volunteers are able to assess each child's situation and make objective recommendations to the court. The child may be placed with parents, in foster care or available for permanent adoption. CASA volunteers are appointed to gather information in child abuse and neglect cases and speak to the court on behalf of the needs of the children.

CASA volunteers, who are court-appointed by a Judge, can offer child victims a sense of permanency and are primarily focused on the needs of the child. They develop the kind of relationship that ensures they are able to make well-informed placement recommendations in their fact-based reports to Judges. These reports are based on an individualized assessment of the child's needs gained from the one-on-one time they spend with the child, and in interviewing all adults involved in the child's life. In these cases, the children often slip through the cracks of the system without a specialized advocate since the child welfare professionals and judges are assigned to many other cases. Typically, these professionals cannot spend the amount of time a CASA volunteer can in getting to know the child's situation.

Children with a CASA volunteer are shown to be more likely to graduate from high school, obtain needed community services and spend less time in the child welfare system.

As the Colorado statewide coordinating agency for the CASA network, Colorado CASA has provided the following services: support and technical assistance to local CASA programs; development of new CASA programs in the state; creation of opportunities for communication, networking, sharing information, resource development, and support for CASA program staff; dissemination of current information to local CASA programs regarding federal and state legislation, policy changes, trends in child welfare, court improvement, and court decisions that impact the work of CASA programs; and increased awareness of CASA work and the needs of children who are abused and neglected to targeted groups and the public.

In 2010, over 1,600 CASA Volunteers across Colorado gave 140,600 hours to serve 3,608 children. While these numbers are impressive, it is still not enough. CASA programs across the state are in need of volunteers and funds to serve the over 6,000 children still without a CASA volunteer.