Alabama CASA Network, Inc.

Our goal is to increase the number and quality of CASA volunteers serving abused, abandoned, or neglected children in Alabama. To meet this goal, we must increase the efficiency and stability of the local CASA programs. Financial support by state & federal grants, corporate & foundation giving and individual donors allows local CASA programs to achieve the following goals and objectives through recruiting, screening, training, supporting, and tracking CASA volunteers as they serve child victims in Alabama.

Goal #1: To increase the number of children served by CASA programs in Alabama
Measurable Objective: To increase the number of volunteers available to support existing programs and implement new CASA programs in Alabama

Goal #2: To improve the quality of services provided by CASA volunteers
Measurable Objective: Improve the accuracy and completion of court reports to include increase submissions by local CASA program staff and volunteers

Goal #3: Track accurate volunteer and client data with Optima Software.
Measurable Objective: Increase accuracy of case management and children served, ultimately to decrease the amount of time children spend in temporary dependency placements.

Goal #4: To provide training, quality assurance and technical assistance from the state office.
Measurable Objective: Increase the quality and number of programs in Alabama and the amount of pass-through funding to local CASA programs

For Goal #1:
Strategy: Launch a Volunteer Campaign to increase roles, gifts in kind and overall community engagement.
Strategy: Provide outreach events to engage the general public with additional pre-service opportunities for volunteer training.

Goal #2:
Strategy: Assess capacity of local programs for additional staffing needs and review of wage adjustments and/or hours proportionately as appropriate for current staff.
Strategy: Provide increased professional development training for volunteers and staff.

Goal #3:
Strategy: Facilitate training and supervise staff and volunteers to accurately track and enter data in Optima Software.

Goal #4:
Strategy: Travel to each CASA office for training assistance, site visits, technical assistance, provide a longer and more in-depth state conference, increase the number of local program staff meetings and trainings. Delivery of services will be made available with multiple opportunities for on-site trainings, webinars, conference calls, site-visits and quarterly trainings and conferences.

Alabama CASA Network provides abused, neglected, or abandoned dependent children in Alabama up to the age of 19 with a trained, caring volunteer to advocate for the child's best interest in all judiciary dependency proceedings. These children are typically the victims of crime; at least one of the following – physical abuse, sexual abuse, medical neglect, domestic violence, drug abuse, etc. These children need a CASA volunteer to work in conjunction with the judges, lawyers and social workers in their lives to help ensure they receive appropriate care and support while navigating the court, child welfare, and foster care systems.

Highly trained CASA volunteers conduct independent, objective investigations into the circumstances of a child’s life, interview all relevant adults and parties to the case as well as maintain regular in person contact with the child or children. Additionally, advocates review all pertinent legal, medical, psychological or other records, and make recommendations to the court as to what is in the best interest of the child. CASA volunteers then monitor the case, link children to services, and report to the court until the child is placed in a safe, permanent home.

Volunteers are the unique element in the child welfare mix. The one-on-one contact between a child who needs a stable relationship with a caring adult and a volunteer who is doing the job without compensation and who has no competing interests, is substantially different than contact between a child and an agency staff member who is carrying a drawer full of equally demanding cases.

CASA volunteers typically handle only one or two cases at a time—and commit to staying on the case until the child is placed in a safe, permanent home. Ninety-five percent of children with CASA volunteers stay out of foster care long-term (defined as three years or more). In addition, children with a CASA volunteer are more likely to be adopted.

CASA volunteers truly change the lives of the children they serve.

Court Appointed Special Advocates are necessary in the communities they serve and to the child victims they advocate for. Alabama CASA Network supports local programs who are deploying volunteers each and every day. Since its creation by a family court judge in Seattle, CASA has become one of the most effective programs of its kind. There are 15 programs in Alabama serving 20 counties and over 1,000 programs around the country. It is a unique blend of private support, public needs and the kind of people power that comes from over 425 volunteers in Alabama and over 70,000 volunteers nationwide, all committed to the rights of every child in the foster care and child welfare system.

A child with a CASA volunteer is more likely to find a safe, permanent home, more likely to be adopted, half as likely to re-enter foster care, substantially less likely to spend time in long-term foster care, and more likely to have a plan for permanency.

Children with a CASA volunteer receive more help while they are navigating the child welfare and foster care systems. There are more services ordered for children with a CASA volunteer, and they are more likely to have a consistent adult presence in their life. CASA volunteer advocates spend significantly more time with the child than a paid attorney; however, CASA volunteers aim to work alongside social workers and guardian ad litems to help assist them and be an extra set of eyes and ears. CASA volunteers improve representation of children, submit written court reports and are highly effective in having their recommendations for services adopted by the court.
Children with a CASA volunteer do better in school and are more likely to pass all their courses. They are also less likely to have poor conduct in school and are less likely to be expelled.