Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Social Services topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Court-appointed special advocates ask Coffee County for $20,000 to serve children on CASA waitlist
Summary
Casa, the local Court Appointed Special Advocates program, told commissioners it has eight Coffee County children in out-of-home placement and four on a waitlist; the program requested $20,000 to support staffing and services for those four children.
Representatives of CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) asked the Coffee County Board of Commissioners on Monday for a $20,000 county contribution to serve four children currently on the program's Coffee County waitlist.
CASA staff told commissioners the program currently identifies eight children from Coffee County in foster care; volunteers are actively serving four of those children and four remain on a waitlist because CASA lacks capacity to assign advocates immediately. CASA said its volunteer advocates provide case continuity for children who often experience multiple moves and case-staff changes.
"It costs around $5,000 per child per year to support them with the advocacy services that we provide and $20,000 would help us with the 4 kids that are on our waitlist right now," the CASA representative said during the county budget presentations. CASA said it works in four counties across the Fourth Judicial District and has recently built local board membership and fundraising in Coffee County.
Why it matters: CASA volunteers, the group said, help children obtain basic documents, medical care, school supports and permanency planning; CASA cited research showing children with advocates tend to find safe permanent homes faster and have better school outcomes.
Funding request details and context: CASA described a $178,000 operating budget for its four-county program and said the requested $20,000 would pay recruitment, training, background checks and supervisory support needed to assign volunteers to the four local children on the waitlist. CASA also said it recently hired a part-time volunteer coordinator and that some program costs now rely on a mix of grants and local fundraising.
Next steps: CASA said it has not received county support during the current director's two-year tenure and asked commissioners to consider the $20,000 request as part of county budget deliberations. Commissioners asked questions about the program's fundraising and staffing; CASA said it expects local events and community partnerships to help sustain operations once capacity is increased.
Provenance
Topic intro: transcript block starting at 2400.37 — "So I'm with CASA Court appointed Special Advocate..."
Topic finish: transcript block starting at 3351.0051 — "It's gonna be I think it's October 25. It's a Saturday before Halloween."
