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Our Mission Statement

The mission of Child Advocates of Placer County is to empower foster youth, at-risk youth and young adults to build resiliency, self-confidence and academic achievement, and help them avoid the juvenile justice system, teen pregnancy, and drug and/or alcohol use by connecting them with well-trained, caring and reliable adult mentors.

 

Click here to Meet Our Team of Staff and Board members.

 

Corporate Documents

IRS 501 c 3 Letter        IRS Form 990 for 2008-09      IRS Form W-9 

Our Program

Our Goal

The goal of CASA of Placer County is to prevent abused, neglected, and abandoned children from becoming lost in the Juvenile Dependency system and working to find 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.

This volunteer has six essential roles to fulfill being an advocate:

  1. Meet with the child once per week for at least an hour
  2. Gather information from all interested parties, such as attorneys, social workers, teachers, caregivers, therapists, etc.
  3. Keep an eye out for any unmet needs of the child, and advocate for those needs to be met
  4. 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
  5. Attend all court hearings regarding the child (usually once every six months, sometimes more frequent)
  6. Monitor the case by doing all of the above until the child is placed into a safe, permanent, nurturing home

Our Process

CASA of Placer County receives referrals directly from the Court. When a volunteer is available, he or she reviews the case information and consults with the professionals involved with the child. Prior to each court hearing, the volunteer prepares a court report with his/her evaluations and recommendations for the child. The Juvenile Court Judge reads and considers the CASA report along with the social worker’s report prior to making a decision. To better serve the program, each volunteer receives 30 hours of expert, ongoing training in relevant skills.

CASA volunteers are unique in providing information not usually available to the Court. Because of the enormous number of cases filed in Juvenile Court and dwindling resources to adequately investigate cases, judges are often compelled to make decisions based on less than complete or objective data. A CASA’s objective, unbiased recommendation to support the best interest of the child is an invaluable aid to the judge.