Anne Arundel County CASA, Inc.
94 Franklin Street
Annapolis, MD 21401
(P) 410-267-7877
(F) 410-267-9459
CASA: The Beginning
In 1977, a Seattle Superior Court Judge, David Soukup, was losing sleep over trying to make the best decisions for abused and neglected children in his courtroom. There were many times when he felt that he did not have enough information about each child’s unique circumstances. Judge Soukup knew that the decisions he was making would have a lifelong impact on these children. He came up with an idea. What if he could train community volunteers to get to know these children and their circumstances. These volunteers, Court Appointed Special Advocates, could report back to him what they had learned and he would then be able to make a decision based on the best interests of the child. He put the word out that he was looking for volunteers, expecting five or ten people to hear the call. Fifty citizens responded. Thus, the CASA concept was born.
'When you're involved with a child and you're trying to decide what to do to facilitate that child's growth into a mature and happy adult, you don't feel like you have sufficient information to allow you to make the right decision. You can't walk away and leave them at the courthouse at 4 o'clock. You wonder, 'Do I really know everything I should? Have I really been told all of the different things? Is this really right?'"
Judge Soukup's idea has blossomed into a nationwide program. Last year, more than 70,000 CASA volunteers served more than 237,000 abused and neglected children through almost 1,000 program offices. CASA volunteers have helped more than two million abused children since the first program was established.