What We Accomplish

When a CASA advocate is assigned to a foster child’s case, he or she offers a sense of security for that child.  No matter the changes in living placement, no matter how long the child’s case remains in the court’s care, CASA will stay assigned, visiting the child regularly, rebuilding a sense of trust in adults, offering support to the child and both set of parents (biological and foster) in the form of resources for the child, and reporting back to the Juvenile Advocacy judge on concerns, successes, and ultimate recommendations for the child’s best interest. 

On average, an abused and neglected child in Macon County remains in foster care for just under 2 years.  CASA is diligent to ensure the best fit with an assignment of a volunteer to a foster child’s life.   We pair the volunteer’s strengths with the child’s needs to create a long-lasting relationship.  We ask for a commitment from the volunteer to stay with us for the duration of the child’s case.  While the child might have many other people enter and leave their lives while in foster care, CASA seeks to offer the stability of the one CASA volunteer advocate who can be the history teller of the child’s story in the case and help ensure movement to a safe and permanent home.   

The goal of CASA, the Juvenile Advocacy judge, the GAL, and case-working agencies is to reunify the child with his or her biological parents.  We know that the best place for children is with their biological parents; however, not in the same type of home that they were removed from, but in a rehabilitated home.  In Macon County, foster children are reunified with their biological parents 40% of the time; the other 60% of time, foster children have other safe and permanent home outcomes—adoption, guardianship, independence.  Additionally, when CASA is assigned to a foster child’s case, we are able to find the child a safe and permanent home 6 months faster than if CASA was not assigned to a case.  And, in what CASA believes to be the ultimate measure of success, we have successfully found a safe and permanent home for our assigned foster children where 98% of these children do not come back into foster care.