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We connect all of California’s 44 local CASA programs through statewide meetings, training sessions, and online communication networks. We raise awareness of the need for Court Appointed Special Advocates across our state and provide support, advice, resources, and oversight to maintain high-quality programs that serve children’s best interests. We advocate for legislation that benefits children in foster care and the CASA volunteers who work on their behalf.
— Select Panel for the Promotion of Child Health, 1981
California Court Appointed Special Advocates Association ensures that children and youth in the foster care system have both a voice and the services they need for a stable future.
That one day every foster child in California will have access to the transformative service and support of a CASA volunteer.
California CASA pledges:
Sustain a culture across the CA CASA network recognized for being firmly grounded in leveraging diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), to ensure equity in all that we do. The CA CASA Association will function as a knowledge-based, fact-finding, and teaching cohort in support of the children, families, staff, volunteers, Boards of Directors, and partners we serve.
Seek opportunities to recruit, hire, promote, and partner with our CASA staff members, board members, and volunteers so that CASA programs better reflect the diversity of the children we serve. We knowingly commit to paying particular attention to the dimensions of diversity that most impact feelings of safety and security – race, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, ability, religious beliefs, and socio-economic status.
Assist our local programs who advocate for fairness and equity in every case to which CASA volunteers are assigned by the courts with data and training. Empower and support each staff member, board member, and volunteer who advocates for children to possess a clear understanding of how a child’s unique culture and identity impacts decision making and their role in influencing the case outcome.
Advocate for and support relevant anti-discrimination policies in the California state legislature, California judiciary, with local government officials, and in state and local county child welfare and social services departments that are within our sphere of influence. This includes policies that protect youth based on all identities including race, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, ability, religion, and socioeconomics.
Lead by example through our own policies, recruiting, decisions, and communications by being culturally responsive and inclusive of all identities.
We are committed to regular assessment of our pledge and our progress on this journey.
We acknowledge that we are part of a greater community and work respectfully with local CASA programs and other partners to effectively carry out our mission.
We embrace bold creativity to transform new ideas into tangible services and results for local CASA programs.
We are dedicated to supporting, empowering, and evaluating the impact of local CASA programs so that they perform at their highest level of advocacy for children and youth in foster care, and their families.
We value, embrace, and respect the inclusion of all cultures, races, orientations, and ethnicities, treating everyone fairly and equitably.
We believe that children and youth in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems deserve fair and just treatment, advocacy, and equitable opportunity.
Through persistence, partnership, and passion for our mission, our network of CASA programs has grown to serve children and courts in 51 counties in California, covering the region where 99% of foster youth live.
Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA), a national volunteer movement, began in 1976. Its founder, Seattle Superior Court Judge David Soukup, decided he couldn’t endure any more sleepless nights worrying about the lifelong impact his decisions had on abused and neglected children. At that time, children in foster care didn’t receive the same representation in court as parents did. According to Judge Soukup, in an LA Times interview, “I was consumed by the fact that I didn’t have enough information about each child, and I just didn’t know if I had done the very best job I could.”
Judge Soukup sets out to right this wrong. He thought well-trained volunteers could ensure children’s voices were heard and provide judges with the necessary insight to make the best possible decisions. By 1977, Judge Soukup formed the first CASA program to recruit, train, and supervise everyday people who volunteered to build meaningful relationships and advocate for abused and neglected children in juvenile dependency court. Those first 50 volunteers became Court Appointed Special Advocates, and gave birth to a movement.
Today, close to 1,000 CASA programs serve children in 49 of our 50 states. California CASA was created to empower local programs. Local CASA directors who ran county-wide programs, recognized the need for a state office that could grow and strengthen the CASA network. Together, they formed California CASA Association in 1987. At our founding, only 17% of California Superior Courts had access to CASA volunteers. Through persistence, partnership, and passion for our mission, our network of CASA programs has grown to serve children and courts in 51 counties in California, covering the region where 99% of foster youth live.
*According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
A new three-year strategic plan creates a path forward for California CASA to pursue three priorities: