Mission/History/Vision
CASA is an acronym for Court Appointed Special Advocate.
A CASA is a specially screened and trained community volunteer appointed by a juvenile court judge to represent the best interests of abused, neglected or abandoned children involved in dependency proceedings in juvenile court.
The mission of the Pima County CASA Program is to recruit, train and supervise community-based volunteers to advocate for children in the juvenile court system.
1991 legislation institutionalized the Arizona CASA Program into a statutorily mandated program with a specified funding source. The State Program receives 30% of all unclaimed lottery prize revenues. Each year’s budget requires legislative approval and the Governor’s signature.
Concerned over making decisions about abused and neglected children’s lives without sufficient information, a Seattle judge conceived the idea of using trained community volunteers to speak for the best interests of these children in court. So successful was this Seattle program that soon judges across the country began utilizing citizen advocates. In 1990, the U.S. Congress encouraged the expansion of CASA with passage of the Victims of Child Abuse Act. Today more than 900 CASA program offices are in operation, with trained women and men serving as CASA volunteers.
The Pima County CASA Program was the 2nd program developed in the United States.
