Frequently Asked Questions

What is CASA Child Advocates of Montgomery County?

CASA Child Advocates of Montgomery County is an incorporated and licensed nonprofit organization whose primary role is to train and supervise volunteers who speak on behalf of abused and neglected children. CASA is part of a National Organization with 920 chapters in all 50 states. The Montgomery County chapter was formed in 1992 and in 2008 we served over 600 children.

What is a Child Advocate?

Whenever a child is removed from their home by the authorities, the court appoints a Guardian ad Litem to speak for the child’s best interests in court. This may be an attorney, but in Montgomery County, this will be a CASA volunteer who has been trained as a Child Advocate, so long as one is available. The Advocate speaks for the child in court, but also looks out for the bests interests of the child including, but not limited to their medical welfare, psychological welfare, education and housing.

What is the role of a Child Advocate?

After being assigned as a Guardian ad Litem, an Advocate researches the background of the child to form the basis of sound decisions about the child’s future. The advocate works with CPS to understand the reasons for removal of the child and to ensure that the child’s best interests are being met whilst in care. Further, the Advocate monitors the family situation to be able to determine if it is in the best interest of the child to be returned to the family, or alternately if the child should remain in long term care or be a candidate for adoption. The Advocate follows through until the case is permanently resolved.

How does a Child Advocate differ from a CPS Caseworker?

CPS Caseworkers are assigned to multiple cases where they monitor and act on the children’s needs and monitor the parent’s progress in achieving necessary skills and other goals. Caseworkers often have many cases concurrently and are not able to monitor to the same depth as a volunteer CASA Child Advocate who will more typically only have 1-2 cases at a time. Because Advocates are volunteers and are only addressing the child’s needs, they are viewed as less adversarial by the affected families, thereby eliciting greater cooperation and gaining important information which can be used to ensure the child’s best interests are being met.

How does an Advocate differ from a child’s attorney?

The Advocate does not provide legal representation or advice; that is the role of the Child’s attorney. Advocates often interact more frequently with the children than the attorney is able to do. By providing the attorney with crucial background information, Advocates assist the attorney in their representation of the child in the court. The Advocates also testify independently of the Child’s attorney.

What services does an Advocate provide for Children?

By understanding the child’s needs and discussing those needs with CASA professional staff, Advocates can help CPS and other involved caregivers provide needed services for the children. These range from meeting medical and psychological needs to therapeutic and rehabilitative services. By being the voice of the child in court, the CASA Advocate can bring service shortcomings to the attention of the judge, who can order that the necessary services be provided. CASA also provides quality of life experiences for children such as annual picnics, holiday parties, and tickets to entertainment events. There are also limited funds available to provide items such as eyeglasses, beds, school supplies and music lessons.

How do the legal system and child welfare system view CASA?

CASA has been endorsed by the American Bar Association, the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention of the U.S. Department of Justice. CASA is described as the eyes and ears of the judge, and frequently acts as the arms and legs of an overworked child protective system.

Does CASA of Montgomery County have specific goals? Are they being met?

CASA of Montgomery County has the goal of assigning a CASA Advocate to every case where a child is removed by the courts. Unfortunately, we are short of volunteers to accomplish this and we are short of donations which would allow us to provide the necessary staff to support the additional volunteer Advocates. Currently, we are able to assign volunteer Advocates or paid staff to approximately 70% of the cases before the courts in Montgomery County. Additional funds and volunteers are needed to allow us to meet our goal of 100% representation for children who have been removed from their homes by the court.

Is CASA of Montgomery County effective in reducing child abuse?

Besides addressing a child’s best interest, the goal of most cases is to amend the child’s home environment so that the cycle of abuse and neglect will be broken for that family. Parents are required to be evaluated and trained to improve their positive parenting skills. If children are returned to the home, the Advocate monitors the home environment for a period of time to ensure that abuse is not occurring. While there are no long term studies for Montgomery County, nation-wide studies and audits on the benefits of a CASA conclude the following:

• Children with a CASA volunteer are substantially less likely to spend time in long-term foster care, defined as more than 3 years in care: 13.3% for CASA cases versus 27.0% of all children in foster care.
• When a CASA volunteer was involved, both children and their parents were ordered by the courts to receive more services. The audit concluded that this was an indication that “CASA is effective in identifying the needs of children and parents.”
• Cases involving a CASA volunteer are more likely to be “permanently closed” (i.e., the children are less likely to reenter the Child Protection System)
• Children with a CASA volunteer are more likely to be adopted and less likely to be reunified with their parents than children not assigned a CASA volunteer. The audit explains this finding as the result of CASA volunteers serving on typically the most serious cases of maltreatment and therefore cases where children are less likely to be reunified with their parents.

Does every child in the court system have an Advocate?

Our goal is to assign a CASA volunteer to every child in Montgomery County who has been removed from their family by the court. Unfortunately, the number of cases in Montgomery County continue to grow faster than our volunteer corps and there are currently more cases of child neglect and abuse in Montgomery County than can be accepted by the 130+ volunteer Advocates currently in place. Therefore, we assign Advocates to the more complex cases and to the cases where a need for an Advocate is greatest. Our staff also take on cases, usually many more than our individual volunteers. But as our existing staff is assigned the maximum number of cases allowed, we must add more staff….and our ability to add more staff is hindered by our funding. Your donation and continued support would allow us to add the staff necessary to meet Montgomery County’s growing needs.

What does it take to be a volunteer CASA Advocate?

Almost anyone can be a Child Advocate. You must be an adult who cares about the well being of children. After a mandatory background check, you will be given training and whenever assigned a case, a CASA supervisor will work with you to support you and to guide you through the process. To find out more, call us at 936-441-KIDS (5437) ext. 209 or email us at volunteer@CASASpeaks4Kids.com

Where does CASA get the funding?

As a private, nonprofit organization, CASA raises funds through private and corporate donations, grants, special fund raising events, corporate matching funds and gifts from foundations. We are also blessed to have a group of volunteers named CHAMPs (CHildren Are My Priority) who support CASA fund raising by organizing and holding events such as the annual Gala, an annual golf tournament as well as organizing the annual holiday party and picnic.
For information on how you can become a CHAMP email admin@CasaSpeaks4Kids.com

What does my donation to CASA Montgomery County support? How will the funds be spent?

Donations to CASA Montgomery County go directly to support the voice of a child in court. More than 90% of donations go directly to support of CASA’s professional staff that support and train Advocates. Without these Advocates and the CASA supervisors who oversee them, the child is not given an independent voice in court and their best interests are left to an overworked and sometimes overwhelmed government system.

Why is CASA Montgomery County not a part of United Way?

United Way of Montgomery County is an umbrella organization which consolidates fundraising and fund dispersal for many nonprofit agencies. However, United Way impose certain restrictions on participating agencies such as the timeframe in which they can independently raise funds. CASA believes that these restrictions would have a negative impact on our ability to conduct our fundraising activities.

Who are the largest financial supporters of CASA?

Several corporations have named CASA as a focus of their nonprofit support (e.g. Hewitt). In recent years, CASA Child Advocates of Montgomery County has also received financial support from Northside Lexus, FMC, ExxonMobil, Aetna and others. CASA also has received two large grants from the Federal and State governments which are aimed at supporting victims of crimes.

Where does the donated money go?

In order to train and support our 150+ volunteer Advocates, CASA has a paid professional staff, currently numbering 6, as well as an Operations Manager, Volunteer Director/Trainer, and a Executive Director. Salaries and benefits for these staff and associated office rental and operating expenses make up the preponderance of our expenses. It currently costs $2,500 to recruit, train and support a volunteer Advocate.

How are our donations stewarded? Who provides oversight of the donated funds?

CASA Child Advocates of Montgomery County has an all volunteer Board of Directors who meet monthly and oversee the financial and operational health of the organization. The Board’s Finance Committee gives a monthly report on income and dispersals and in addition, arranges an annual independent audit which is reviewed by the Board.