Historical Decision for Northeast Georgia CASA
Northeast Georgia CASA began serving children in foster care in the spring of 2004. By 2008 our program was serving nearly 100% of the children in dependency court in Rabun, Habersham, and Stephens counties. At this point, after a request from Georgia CASA and a comprehensive community assessment, the program expanded its operations into the Northern Circuit counties of Elbert, Franklin, Hart, Madison, and Oglethorpe counties.
Since 2009 Northeast Georgia CASA has served more than 1,500 children in the eight counties comprising the two judicial circuits and more than 300 CASA volunteers have been trained and supported by a small staff.
With community growth in all eight counties, the coming addition of Banks County into the Mountain Circuit, and the already widespread geographic area, it has become clear that furthering the mission and reaching the goal of providing CASA advocacy for every child experiencing foster care in the area requires a new tactic.
On September 5th of this year our program’s Board of Directors voted unanimously to change our program’s service area from both judicial circuits to just the Mountain Judicial Circuit. This, combined with an equitable distribution of program assets, paves the way for establishment of a CASA program exclusively for the Northern Judicial Circuit. This new CASA program is currently being formed and will be called CASA of the Northern Judicial Circuit, or Advocates Alliance for Children.
We anticipate that CASA of the Northern Judicial Circuit will be fully functional as a CASA program in late January/early February 2025, with their 501c3 in place soon thereafter.
The mission of Northeast Georgia Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) is to provide training, supervision, and resources for volunteers to advocate for the best interests of abused and neglected children within our communities.
About CASA
Every day in this country, 1,900 children become victims of abuse or neglect, and four of them will die. Every day.
Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) for Children is a network of 951 community-based programs that recruit, train and support citizen-volunteers to advocate for the best interests of abused and neglected children in courtrooms and communities.
Volunteer advocates—empowered directly by the courts—offer judges the critical information they need to ensure that each child’s rights and needs are being attended to while in foster care. Volunteers stay with children until they are placed in loving permanent homes.
For many abused children, a CASA volunteer is the only constant adult presence in their lives.
Northeast Georgia CASA serves Hart, Elbert, Madison, Oglethorpe, Franklin, Stephens, Habersham, and Rabun Counties.