Serving Cochran, Hale, Hockley, Lubbock, Terry and Yoakum Counties of Texas
about CASA
FAQ our board statistics and accomplishments
CASA stands for Court Appointed Special Advocates. The CASA volunteer is appointed by a judge to advocate, or speak for, a child or children in foster care.
CASA began in 1977 when a judge in Seattle, Washington decided he was uneasy about making decisions in ten minutes that would affect children for the rest of their lives. The judge launched a program to train and appoint community volunteers to research the cases of children who had been removed from their homes for various reasons. Today there are almost 937 CASA programs across the nation with 50,801 volunteers.
A Lubbock County Judge first appointed a CASA volunteer to serve as an abused child's advocate in 1993.Since that time, over 5000 children have been provided over 1000 advocates.
Our volunteers serve the children in need as Guardian ad Litem. That's a fancy name for an official court role of looking out for the children's "best interests."
The founder of CASA in Lubbock was Karen Balzen. She worked tirelessly to educate our community on the importance of the work that CASA volunteers do.
Since 1995, our program has grown from two employees to 12 full-time and one part-time staff and over 145 volunteers.
In December of 2000, CASA of Lubbock began expansion efforts into the newly created "South Plains Cluster Court", thus calling for the name change, CASA of the South Plains, Inc. With the assistance of Senator Robert Duncan, the Honorable Kelly Moore, and Texas CASA, we were able to secure funding through the governor's office to expand into the new court. Gradually our expansion has grown to our current standings of recruiting volunteers in Cochran, Hale, Hockley, Terry and Yoakum Counties to serve children whose cases are in the courts in each of those counties.
We are governed by a board of directors representing a diverse population of our community. We have representation from six counties in the area.
The Facts
-
In 2007, the Lubbock region had another increase in the rate of confirmed victims of child abuse per capita. The number of per capita children confirmed as victims increased only slightly, but the Lubbock Region has seen this number increase over 45% since 2002.
-
CASA of the South Plains currently has 221 children in need of a CASA volunteer.
-
66% of all the people in Texas prisons today spent time in foster care as children.
-
Children who suffer abuse or neglect are 53% more likely to become juvenile delinquents, 38% more likely to be arrested as adults and 38% more likely to become violent criminals.
To report child abuse,
call the Texas Abuse
and Neglect Hotline
1-800-252-5400
or report online at
