CASA

This evening I went with Tom to a fundraising dinner for CASA: Court Appointed Special Advocates For Children, a non-profit agency serving children in the juvenile justice system due to parental abuse or neglect.

CASA volunteers are appointed by the court to represent the best interests of the child. This is similar to the work Evelyn does as a guardian ad litem, the attorney representing the child's best interests. The GAL and CASA volunteer work as a team if both are involved in a case. Studies have shown CASA volunteers to be effective in reducing court costs, reducing stays in foster care and even in reducing rates of delinquency. A study conducted by the National CASA Association showed that children with a CASA volunteer spent approximately one year less in care than a child without CASA involvement. Besides saving taxpayers money, it means that a child finds a permanent and safe home more quickly.

The dinner was the the Spring Brook Golf Resort just down Berry Road from us, so it was very convenient. In addition to the buffet, there were door prizes, raffle tickets and an auction of gift baskets. Some of the things up for grabs (well, up for bids) included Badger and Packer tickets, a NSACAR package (Tom is a huge NASCAR fan) and golf outings. I had assumed that they thought the crowd would be mostly sports fans, but it turns out one of the donors owns a sports memorabilia store and a number of those attending were judges and lawyers and the sort of people who golf a lot. I am not sure how much they raised, but people were bidding generously.

Even though CASA gets some state funding, it has to raise some of its own funds because the needs, sad to say, are great. Last year, according to the National CASA Association, their volunteers advocated for 225,000 children -- and that is only half of the children in the child welfare system at any given time. Locally (Sauk and Columbia Counties) there are 600 reported cases of child abuse and neglect each year.

We were there at the invitation (instigation) of Judy Spring, one of the folks from Tom's political activities. Like Debbie Kinder, Judy seems to be involved in a dozen different causes. She serves on the board of CASA, and as is often the case when you are a board member for a non-profit, you are expected to bring in ten or twelve people as paying guests for things like this. It was a nice enough meal and the company was good, although an hour and a half of a sports auction is yawn-city for me.