CASA of Will County

CASA of Will County’s mission is to draw from community resources to provide well-trained volunteers who will advocate for abused and neglected children in our court system.

What we do Our mission is to draw from community resources to provide well-trained volunteers who will advocate for abused and neglected children in the court system, and provide needed information to the court.  Our primary goal is to find a safe, nurturing, permanent home for each Will County child in need. Our legislative mandate is found in 705 Illinois Compiled Statute 405, Sections 2-17 and 2-17.1.  We are appointed as guardian’s ad litem and as special advocates for children who are in the care of the Department of Children and Family services because they have been abused or neglected. The CASA of Will County Case Manager/CASA advocate team is the backbone for the success and impact our program has for the children we serve.  We support abused or neglected children during a time when they feel most alone and betrayed by someone they once trusted. This is an overwhelming and life-altering experience for any child.  Minimizing the damage done, ensuring that all children have a voice, and finding safe, permanent homes for all children in need is the focus of our Case Manager/CASA advocate teams. Our greatest strength is the comprehensive training we provide for our volunteer advocates.  They receive 33 hours of initial training on topics like sufficient care levels, laws governing child abuse and neglect, the juvenile court process, cultural awareness and diversity issues, and the impact of mental illness, domestic violence, and poverty on children and families.  In addition, all volunteers have a Case Manager to provide mentoring and guidance, and all volunteers are required to attend 12 hours of continuation training every year. Our country’s economic challenges have made it difficult to cover the costs associated with running our program.  While we depend on volunteers to advocate for our children, we are required by the National CASA organization to assign our volunteers to experienced Case Managers to help them advocate for the health, safety, and best interests of our children.  These dedicated professionals mentor our volunteers, appear in court, and track the progress our children’s cases are making. Statistics The U.S. Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General conducted an audit of the National CASA Association.  The following are highlights of the findings: Children with a CASA volunteer are less likely to spend time in long-term foster care:  13.3% for CASA cases versus 27.0% of all children in foster care. With CASA involvement, both children and their parents received more court ordered services.  The audit concluded 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.  The statistics vary from 1.4% to 9% of CASA children reentering the child welfare system.  This is in contrast to 16% for children not served by a CASA volunteer. Evaluation Our statistical measures help us track how many children we advocate for, how long their cases remain open, what their final placement outcomes are, and how many volunteers we recruit and train.  Our evaluations are used to plan for staffing needs, schedule training classes, develop fundraising goals, and gauge our program’s effectiveness.  Each volunteer is assigned to a Case Manager, so we must plan for staff growth.  We monitor the number of cases brought by the Will County State’s Attorney’s office so we know how many children are in need of advocacy services.  We maintain a close relationship with our juvenile court judge, so she can gauge our capacity for new assignments.  We track case duration to make sure children don’t languish in the child welfare system.  We check whether placement outcomes match our recommendations so we can gauge our advocacy effectiveness.  We evaluate volunteer recruitment and retention to make sure we are effective in our efforts to find quality volunteers.  All of these measures help us monitor and maintain program quality.