About CASA

What We Do

The goal of CASA of Santa Barbara County is to prevent abused, neglected, and abandoned children from becoming lost in the Juvenile Dependency system. In addition, we aim at finding 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.

As an advocate, a CASA volunteer fulfills six main roles:

1. Meet with the child once per week for at least an hour;
2. Gather information from all interested parties, such as attorneys, social workers, teachers, caregivers, therapists, etc.;
3. Keep an eye out for any unmet needs of the child, and advocate for those needs to be met
4. 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
5. Attend all court hearings regarding the child (usually once every six months, sometimes more frequent)
6. Monitor the case by doing all of the above until the child is placed into a safe, permanent, nurturing home

How It Works

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.

If you'd like to find out more about volunteering, send an email to volunteer@sbcasa.org to let us know you're interested, or call us at (805) 845-8364. We look forward to hearing from you!