CALIFORNIA COURT APPOINTED SPECIAL ADVOCATE ASSOCIATION
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Mission Statement
At California CASA Association (CalCASA), we believe that no child should have to experience the foster care system without a supportive consistent adult by their side. Our vision is that every foster child in California has the service and support of a CASA volunteer. Currently, only 1 in 6 children in California’s foster care system do. All of our work is dedicated to expanding volunteer CASA service to children in foster care.
About This Cause
MISSION Founded in 1987, the mission of the California CASA Association (CalCASA) is to ensure children in the foster care system have both a voice and the services they need for a stable future. We achieve this goal by strengthening California’s network of local CASA programs and advocating for progressive child welfare policy and practice. We improve the scope, quality and impact of the CASA network by: • Strengthening local programs with technical assistance, training, and resources. • Evaluating CASA programs and sharing best practices throughout the state. • Communicating the CASA perspective and advocating for progressive, child-centered legislation and policy. • Identifying and pursuing valuable strategic alliances that leverage and/or expand our children’s resources state-wide. THE NEED At any given time, more than 60,000 of California’s children find themselves living in foster care. Removed from their homes while the courts decide future arrangements, these children may be placed with a relative, a friend, or foster guardians. The “Foster Care System” is a complex intersection of agencies, law and services meant to protect abused and neglected children. When a child is first placed in foster care, her future is undecided. Will she return home? What services will ensure the child’s safety? Is adoption by a family member or a foster guardian a better option? While the courts grapple with these crucial questions, they are also beset by high case loads and insufficient funding. This is where CASA comes in. THE CASA MODEL Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASAs) are specially trained to advocate for individual foster children. CASA volunteers ensure that children do not fall through the cracks. Working with everyone involved — the child, parents, foster parents, teachers, social workers, mental health professionals — the CASA volunteer makes informed recommendations on a vulnerable child’s behalf. By getting to know the history and needs of the child, CASA volunteers develop special insight and influence. CASAs are specially trained to advocate for individual foster children. This advocacy occurs primarily in the courtroom, where CASAs provide detailed reports and insights for the judges making decisions. Outside of the courtroom, CASAs mentor children and monitor their educational, social, and health needs. They request necessary services and ensure that their child’s unique needs are understood and met. For many foster children, their CASA volunteer will be the one constant adult presence in their lives. OUR WORK At California CASA Association (CalCASA), all of our efforts are in service of sustaining and expanding high-quality volunteer service to California’s foster children. We fulfill CASA programs’ most resource-intensive needs, allowing them to focus their scarce and precious resources on managing volunteers and ensuring children are better off with CASAs in their lives. We bridge the resource gap between what these programs must accomplish and what they have the capacity to achieve. We achieve this through the following core activities: We bridge the resource gap between what CASA programs must accomplish and what they have the capacity to achieve. We achieve this through the following core activities: - CalCASA promotes best practices and develops CASA practice tools in response to network needs. We have the benefit of learning from 44 programs statewide. We share what we learn in the field with local programs to help them reach their goals and overcome challenges. We also translate this learning into quality CASA practice tools. Most recently, we developed a curriculum – CASA Conversations – to help CASAs effectively engage with their youth about challenging issues that may be far outside of their own experience such as running away, psychotropic medication, identity theft, and more. - CalCASA offers legal, programmatic, and organizational technical assistance to strengthen CASA programs. Together, our staff has over 50 years combined child welfare experience and strong personal connections to the mission; two grew up in the foster care system, and the other four are, or have been, CASA volunteers. We dedicate our experience and expertise to providing programs with the knowledge and resources they need to effectively advocate for children and run their programs. CalCASA’s Associate and Legal Director, an attorney with expertise in child welfare law, helps staff members navigate this complex and ever-changing legal framework, saving programs the time and money they each would have to expend to acquire legal support. Our program manager, who has nearly 15 years’ experience as a leader in the CASA network, coaches staff members on CASA program practice, compliance, and non-profit management. CalCASA provides quality training opportunities for CASA staff and volunteers. Volunteers must complete 12 hours of continuing education per year, and changes in law often require them to be quickly trained on new topics (most recently, on LGBTQ cultural sensitivity). CalCASA centralizes this process, developing curricula in collaboration with local programs, training staff to implement these at the local level, and contracting with high quality experts to train on pressing issues such as trauma-informed care. - CalCASA conducts comprehensive program site visits that ensure network-wide quality and compliance by identifying best practices and challenges. In order to keep their doors open and continue to serve children, CASA programs must be in compliance with laws governing their service to children. We partner with Judicial Council, CASA’s funder and regulator, to make sure that even when programs face compliance challenges, they are able to overcome these. Site visits also allow us to identify innovative strategies and best practices, which we then make available to programs across the network. CalCASA is a leader in child welfare policy development and implementation. We voice the CASA perspective in state and national policy forums, advocating for progressive legislation that improves the health and safety of children in the foster care system. When new policies emerge, we educate staff members across the state and support them in understanding and implementing the new policies and laws that come into effect every year. - CalCASA develops special initiatives to enhance CASA’s promotion of positive outcomes for foster children. CASAs provide holistic services and supports that touch on every aspect of children’s lives. We learn from our local programs what they need to meet children’s needs and help them achieve their dreams, and then we build initiatives that benefit all programs across the state.