Active Members
New Members
Mission Statement
The mission of the National Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) Association, together with its state and local members, is to support and promote court-appointed volunteer advocacy for abused and neglected children so that they can thrive in safe, permanent homes.
Our Goal for Children
Our goal is to help an additional 100,000 children beyond those we already serve. This is just one step along the way to providing a CASA volunteer for every child who needs one. It is a very ambitious goal, and we cannot do it alone. But we have a plan to get there-by:
"By either becoming a trained CASA volunteer or donating money, you can make a huge difference in the lives of abused and neglected children. Let's get involved and keep these kids from falling through the cracks. Please help us with that." - Dr. Phil & Robin McGraw
Voices for Children
Voices for Children, a nonprofit organization based in San Diego, is the sole, designated provider of Court Appointed Special Advocates—CASAs—for San Diego County. Voices for Children (VFC) started in 1980 as an inspired idea with a desk in the hallway of San Diego’s Juvenile Court. Building on the National CASA model that trained volunteers to be advocates in juvenile court, Voices for Children began training advocates in 1983. Today, Voices for children is one of the largest and oldest CASA organizations in the country, with a 2008-09 budget of $3.2 million, a current staff of 36 employees, and 560 volunteers.
VFC’s 10-year vision, Serve Every Child, calls for an assessment and evaluation of every dependency case in the system, plus prioritized advocacy for infants and toddlers, children new to the system, and the most at-risk children. This plan will provide advocates to 1,700 children by 2012 and double that number by 2016. We have successfully reached key targets for the first two years of this aggressive growth plan, including CASAs for 1,039 children in 2007-08. VFC’s 2008-09 target is to improve the lives of 1,122 foster children by providing them with CASAs and to assess and monitor every child in the foster care system.
