The Court Appointed Special Advocate program, or CASA, of West Central Illinois serves Knox, Warren, Henderson, and McDonough Counties in speaking up for abused and neglected children in the court system. In 2018, the program served 288 children and brought in 123 new children. The need for advocates cannot be stressed enough as Executive Director Sara Robison shares the ultimate goal of the program:
“The goal of the CASA program, or any CASA program, is to provide that one on one advocacy because it is a superior model to anything else out there. It allows us to gather more information to help inform the court to make the most informed decisions about that child’s welfare. So, ideally we would be operating where every single kid in care had an advocate to provide advocacy for them, to advocate for them on their behalf. And while we do have a great number of advocates, we could use more,” Robison reports.
Typically being an advocate for a child is a 5 to 10 hour commitment a month.
For more information, call their office at 309-343-4299.
