Programs: Court Appointed Special Advocates of Orange County

The Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) provides quality advocacy for children through unique, one-on-one relationships between a trained and supervised court-appointed volunteer and an abused, abandoned or neglected child. The CASA of OC program provides children in Orange County, California, with a voice in court through its volunteers. Often sufficient information is missing in these cases for a judge to make an informed decision and the job of CASA volunteers is to fill this void by acting as a fact-finder. The advocate collects information for the judge, speaks on behalf of the child in the courtroom and acts as a “watchdog” for the duration of the case, which often lasts two to three years.

Each CASA volunteer undergoes rigorous training in order to meet the individual needs of the child for whom the will advocate. Funds from the Mazda Foundation allow CASA of OC to train 175 new volunteers and provide services for over 640 children in Southern California. The CASA program was established in 1977 when a Seattle judge conceived of using community volunteers as advocates in the best interest of the children in abuse and neglect cases. Today, CASA is a network of more than 50,000 volunteers that serve 225,000 abused and neglected children through 900+ local program offices nationwide. CASA is able to commit 93% of its funding directly toward child advocacy efforts, with only 7% going to administrative costs.