The Mission of Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) of Santa
Barbara County is to assure a safe, permanent, nurturing home for
every abused and/or neglected child by providing a highly trained
volunteer to advocate for them in the court system.
Our Program
Our Goal
The goal of CASA of Santa Barbara County is to prevent abused,
neglected, and abandoned children from becoming lost in the Juvenile
Dependency system and working to find them safe, permanent homes as
soon as possible. We work carefully to match a CASA volunteer with a
child to ensure that the child's best interest is served.
This volunteer has six essential roles to fulfill being an advocate:
Meet with the child once per week for at least an hour;
Gather information from all interested parties, such as
attorneys, social workers, teachers, caregivers, therapists, etc.;
Keep an eye out for any unmet needs of the child, and advocate
for those needs to be met;
Write a court report to the juvenile court judge for each
hearing concerning the child. The report gives the judge the
information the advocate has gathered, what the advocate believes
to be in the child's best interests, and what the child would like
to have happen;
Attend all court hearings regarding the child (usually once
every six months, sometimes more frequent); and
Monitor the case by doing all of the above until the child is
placed into a safe, permanent, nurturing home.
Our Process
CASA of Santa Barbara County receives referrals directly from the
Court. When a volunteer is available, he or she reviews the case
information and consults with the professionals involved with the
child. Prior to each court hearing, the volunteer prepares a court
report with his/her evaluations and recommendations for the child.
The Juvenile Court Judge reads and considers the CASA report along
with the social worker's report prior to making a decision. To
better serve the program, each volunteer receives 30 hours of
expert, ongoing training in relevant skills.
CASA volunteers are unique in providing information not usually
available to the Court. Because of the enormous number of cases
filed in Juvenile Court and dwindling resources to adequately
investigate cases, judges are often compelled to make decisions
based on less than complete or objective data. A CASA's objective,
unbiased recommendation to support the best interest of the child is
an invaluable aid to the judge.
CASA of Santa Barbara County receives referrals directly from the
Court. When a volunteer is available, he or she reviews the case
information and consults with the professionals involved with the
child. Prior to each court hearing, the volunteer prepares a court
report with his/her evaluations and recommendations for the child.
The Juvenile Court Judge reads and considers the CASA report along
with the social worker's report prior to making a decision. To
better serve the program, each volunteer receives 30 hours of
expert, ongoing training in relevant skills.