CASA for Kids

CASA for Kids recruits, screens, trains, and supervises community volunteers, who serve as a best interest advocate for abused and neglected children in Washington County, PA. The Juvenile Court Dependency Judge assigns a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) to one child or one sibling group at a time. That CASA volunteer visits with the child on a regular basis and gathers information pertaining to the child included medical, educational and developmental records with the courts order. The CASA volunteer then writes and presents a written court report summarizing this information gathered and details about the child, making recommendations for services and placement in that child's best interests. CASA for Kids is part of a Nationwide CASA/GAL network of over 900 programs which provide this service to ensure children in the child welfare system to do not fall through the cracks of an overburdened system.

CASA for Kids relies upon community connections to support our volunteers in this program. We are looking to increase our community connections with people who have a heart for children who are in the child welfare system through no fault of their own, but due to abuse and neglected they have experienced at the hands of their caretakers. We are looking to connect with people who want to serve as CASA volunteers and connect with individuals and businesses who value the children who are experiencing this abuse and neglect and want to ensure these children have a caring, well trained, thoroughly screened and closely supervised adult who is advocating for their needs to be met within the child welfare system. The average yearly cost of providing a CASA volunteer to a child in our community is $2,000. This covers recruitment, training, staff support and other expenses related to our mission.