The National CASA Association has awarded a 39,500 grant to CASA of Northeast Arkansas. CASA stands for Court Appointed Special Advocates, which trains volunteers to be representatives of abused and neglected children in court. More than 600 children were in the foster care system last year, but the number of CASA volunteers to represent those children are about a third of that number, despite recruiting 45 new volunteers last year. Executive Director of CASA of the 2nd Judicial District Donna Bowyer tells why CASA volunteers are so important.
“The children that are foster care see social workers and attorneys, but those people have so many cases. A CASA volunteer has one or two cases, so they see the children more frequently and they can be the only constant in that child’s life.”
Bowyer says she was excited to receive a national grant and tells what will be done with the money.
“This grant will support one full-time staff person to manage 30 volunteers that were recruited last year. This will help provide the support needed so they will be successful in their first cases.”
Bowyer says she would like to see at least 200 CASA volunteers in northeast Arkansas. State Director of CASA Mary Beth Luibel says the recruitment drive is part of a national campaign.
“Our National CASA Association has set the year of 2020 as the goal year that we would have enough volunteer advocates to represent each and every child. I believe that Arkansas is well on its way to meet this goal, primarily through the hard work of the CASA chapter of the 2nd Judicial District and many other chapters throughout Arkansas.”
Statewide, there are over 7,000 children in the foster care system in Arkansas, with a majority of those children being under the age of five. More information on CASA can be found here.
