Daviess County CASA , part of a National organization, was begun in Owensboro, Kentucky in 1996. The mission of Daviess County CASA is to recruit, train, and supervise community volunteers, to be appointed by the Daviess County District Court, to represent the best interests of children who have come into the Daviess County District Court system as a result of dependency, abuse, or neglect. It is the goal of the Daviess County CASA program and the District Court Judges that every abused and neglected child will have a CASA volunteer as their voice in court.
Every year in Owensboro/Daviess County more than 500 children are abused and neglected by their families and end up without a home to call their own. Although the number is staggering, the Court Appointed Special Advocate Program of Daviess County is helping make a difference. This nonprofit organization trains volunteers to speak for the best interest of these children in court and to help find them safe, permanent homes.
CASA is vital to the already overburdened juvenile court system. Because the social workers and attorneys appointed to represent the child are appointed to numerous cases, they are unable to devote the time to each case to truly know what is going on in the life of the child. Therefore children are often placed back in unsafe, unstable environments where they continue to suffer abuse and neglect. That is where CASA volunteers can fill the gap. Daviess County CASA requires our volunteers to attend an initial 30-hour training course. Once this course is complete, our volunteers are sworn officers of the court and are assigned a case to investigate. CASA volunteers speak with the child, parents, teachers, doctors, and anyone else who may have an impact on the child’s life.
CASA’s positive effects on the child are numerous. With the involvement of a CASA volunteer, the child is more likely to be placed in a safe, appropriate environment, will spend less time in foster care, and will be placed in a permanent, nurturing environment sooner than children who do not have CASA representation. With the intervention provided by a CASA volunteer, these children are more likely to remain in school, not commit status or criminal offenses as juveniles or re-enter the system as an adult. It is the hope that CASA’s can help break the cycle of violence so that these children can grow up in environments where they can thrive and become, healthy, happy, productive adults.
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