Change a Child's Story - Become a CASA Volunteer

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CASA for Children of Mercer and Burlington Counties advocates for children and youth in the local foster care system. We train and supervise community volunteers, appointed by the Family Court, to advocate for the best interest of children who have been removed from their homes due to abuse and neglect. Our volunteers work to ensure the emotional, physical and educational well-being of these children. The ultimate goal is to help establish a stable and permanent home for each child we serve.

Volunteers meet with teachers, therapists, biological and foster families, and of course regularly with their child, to assess what the child needs. All foster children's cases are brought before a Family Court Judge who must make critical, life-altering decisions about the child's futures. Judges need clear, accurate, and reliably up-to-date information to make decisions in the children's best interests, and CASA plays a significant role in providing that information. Judges typically assign CASAs to their most difficult cases, and our volunteers stay with each case, either a child or siblings, until the case is closed and ideally the child is placed in a permanent home. For many abused children, their CASA volunteer will be the one constant adult presence in their lives.

CASA is currently working to expand the services we offer for youth who are aging out of the foster care system. This includes speaking with youth one-on-one about their lived experience, and what services they feel they are missing. We have also met with other CASA programs nationwide to learn from and about their youth programs. One thing has stood out to us -- the benefit of more specialized training for volunteers who work with older youth. Specialized training in adolescent advocacy will provide our volunteers with opportunities to learn a new kind of advocacy.

Because of the singular nature of our work, CASA is always in need of new volunteers. Becoming a volunteer requires a formal interview, background checks and fingerprints, 30 hours of training, court observation, and finally getting sworn in by a Family Court Judge. While it’s not a job for everyone, for those who become CASA Volunteer Advocates, it can be life changing for a child in foster care.

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