CASA of Santa Barbara County Information

The mission of Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) of Santa Barbara County is to assure a safe, permanent, nurturing home for all abused and/or neglected children by providing a highly trained volunteer to advocate for them in the court system. 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: -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) -Monitor the case by doing all of the above until the child is placed into a safe, permanent, nurturing home