$775
Raised of $75,000
Every child should feel safe, secure, and loved. Every child should grow up in a home free of chaos and violence. Every child should be fed, cared for, and receive an education. Sadly, not every child in our community is living the life they should live.
Each year, hundreds of children from our community experience abuse and neglect. The worst and most dangerous cases often require court intervention. The majority of children with open child abuse cases before our courts are removed from their homes, their families, and sometimes separated from their siblings. Their lives change in an instant and change becomes a constant theme in their lives--change of social workers, change of foster homes, change of schools. The one thing that does not change is their CASA advocate.
Since 1989, Fairfax Court Appointed Special Advocates has provided a dedicated advocate (a CASA) to over 9,000 abused children in our community. CASAs stand up for them, show up for them, and speak up for them. CASAs are often the one consistent adult in the life of an abused child, while they navigate the child welfare system. CASAs act as the eyes and ears of the court--visiting their children and getting to know them, gathering information such as medical and mental health reports, attending school and pre-court meetings--and then writing comprehensive reports for the court which include best interest recommendations. CASAs stay on their cases from beginning to end, an average of 26 months. They fight for their children's needs and ensure that their voices are heard in the chaotic child welfare system. We have vetted, trained, and supervised close to 2,000 community members who have stepped forward to be a CASA for our community's most vulnerable children.
Fairfax CASA strives to reunify families whenever possible and believes that every child should have the opportunity to be raised in their own home, with their own families or with those who will keep them connected to their families, whenever safe and possible.
