At a time when economic instability continues to cause concern for many local nonprofit organizations, CASA of Santa Barbara County has pushed hard to increase its services to abused and neglected local children. The organization announced this week that it served 278 children during the past 12 months, making 2011 a record year.
CASA, which stands for Court Appointed Special Advocates, of Santa Barbara County was founded in 1995 after two years of grassroots activity. The CASA model, developed in the 1970s by a Seattle judge, uses highly trained volunteers to advocate for the best interests of abused and neglected children in the foster system. Studies show that children with CASA volunteers have markedly better outcomes than children who are left to navigate the foster system on their own.
“We were able to serve 28 more children this year than in any other year in our history,” CASA executive director Kim Colby Davis said. “That’s 28 more children in our community who will have brighter futures thanks to their CASA volunteers.”
CASA’s ultimate goal is to serve every child in Santa Barbara County who needs a CASA volunteer.
“I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished,” Davis said. “These are our community’s most vulnerable children, and we must continue to make sure that their voices are heard.”
What’s also record-breaking for CASA is the amount of community interest the organization has received in recent months.
“We’re hearing from Santa Barbara residents and community leaders about their concern for local foster youth. They want to help. These are civic-minded individuals who perhaps don’t have the time to become CASA volunteers, but they want to get involved and support us in other ways,” Davis said, continuing by expressing her gratitude for such widespread community interest. “We want to show all these concerned citizens that we want them to be involved in the conversation, and we welcome their interest with open arms.”
In response to an overwhelming number of requests from Santa Barbara residents, CASA will launch a “Get to Know CASA” series later this month. The first session, “Get to Know CASA Hour,” will be held Jan. 31 at the Santa Barbara Bank & Trust Community Partners Center, 15 E. Carrillo St. The event’s short program is free to attend and will feature presentations from Davis, experiences shared by CASA volunteers, and CASA board member Patricia Aptaker, who served as a volunteer herself before joining CASA’s Board of Directors in early 2010.
Space at the Jan. 31 event is limited, so all prospective attendees must RSVP to Summers Case, CASA’s development manager, by Jan. 27. She can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or 805.845.8364 x5984.
— Summers Case is a development manager for CASA of Santa Barbara County.
Comments
