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| Last updated on November 17, 2008 |
CASA's mission is to move children out of foster care and place them into safe, permanent homes where they can thrive.
Description:
For more than 29 years, New York City Family Court Judges have been assigning the most difficult cases to CASA. Our trained and supervised volunteers represent the child's best interests in court.
CASA volunteers get to the bottom of the case. They research the case and interview the parties involved. They make sure that deadlines are met, that required services are provided and that safeguards are enforced. They provide the judges with the facts to make an informed decision about the child's future.
We can resolve the tough cases, minimize the time spent in foster care and move children into permanent homes, either with their parents or in adoptive homes.
CASA's systemic advocacy acts as a watchdog to press social service providers, legal representatives and legislators to do everything within their means to move children swiftly out of the foster care system and into families
History:
In 1976, a Superior Court judge in Seattle heard a case that made him desperate. A three-year-old girl appeared to have been abused, but her mother maintained she had fallen out of a swing and that the mother's boyfriend was not around. "Do I take this child out of the only home she's ever known, or do I pick up the paper in three weeks to read that the boyfriend killed the child?" asked the judge. He needed more information.
Judge David Soukup called in four local people to discuss the possible use of volunteers as caseworkers. When he got to the meeting, 50 people were there.
Soon, judges across the country began utilizing citizen advocates, who formed the National CASA Association as a private, non-profit organization.
In 1990, the U.S. Congress encouraged the expansion of CASA with the passage of the Victims of Child Abuse Act.
New York City CASA was formed in 1979. The staff and volunteers worked out of a single room in Manhattan Family Court.
Over the years, CASA has expanded to serve all five boroughs of New York City. Before expanding into the other boroughs, CASA met with each borough's Supervising Judge and other community leaders in order to develop a needs assessment and obtain their cooperation and support.
New York CASA has grown dramatically in these 27-plus years, but not as dramatically as the demand. While the number of children in foster care in New York City has decreased in recent years, the number of difficult cases for which judges request CASA assistance has not declined.
We are one of more than 900 CASA programs across the country, with almost 74,000 women and men serving as volunteers in these programs. Last year, CASA volunteers helped more than 288,000 children in communities across the country.
Since the founding of the first CASA, its volunteer advocates have helped more than one million children find safe, permanent homes and a second chance for a positive future.
Contact person: Megan Brown-Kennedy, Director Of Training And Advocate Services, (212) 334-4010 ex. 123, (email)
Office fax number: (212) 334-4018
Address:
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50 Broadway, 31st Floor
New York, NY 10004
(See a map) |
Web Site: http://www.casa-nyc.org
Directions:
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Nearest Metro/Subway Stop: 1, R, W to Rector St. 4, 5 to Wall St. J, M, Z to Broad St.,
Walk distance (in minutes): 5 |
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