CASA of Leavenworth County, Inc.
520 S. 4th Street, P.O. Box 429
Leavenworth, Kansas 66048
Phone: 913-651-6440
Fax: 913-682-6759
Hours of service: 8:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Description of Service:
CASA of Leavenworth recruits and trains volunteers who want to help
their community's children. They serve as tools for judges and work
as appointed officers of the court alongside attorneys and social
workers. CASA volunteers are assigned court cases by the Juvenile
Judge and are assigned only one or two cases at a time. Once appointed,
they gather information, review printed records and reports, interview
parents, therapists, teachers, neighbors, and most significantly,
the children. They are independent, objective observers and attend
all court hearings related to their child's case. They make written
reports to the court, make recommendations to the judge and may
be called upon to testify on the child's behalf. Their primary duty
is to become "a voice" for the child or children to whom they are
assigned and speak to the "best interest" of the child based on
their investigation and fact gathering and primarily with their
association with the child. Most of the children are victims of
child abuse or neglect. CASA can also be assigned to Juvenile Offenders
and serve in the same way as with younger children. If court ordered,
CASA also provide supervised visitation for families in the court
system. CASA programs in Kansas are certified by the Office of Judicial
Administration in Topeka and all volunteers who are recruited are
thoroughly screened and trained by the local CASA office and after
meeting all criteria, are certified as CASA volunteers in Kansas.
Volunteers continue to receive training throughout the year. Volunteers
also carefully monitor existing court orders in each case.
Public Appeal for Needs:
The CASA program continually recruits and trains volunteers to serve
as Court Appointed Special Advocates for children. CASA volunteers
come from all walks of life, with a variety of professional, educational
and ethnic backgrounds. There are more the 58,000 CASA volunteers
nationwide. Aside from the CASA volunteer work, 54% are employed in
regular full-time jobs and 83% of the volunteers nationwide are women.
Most are motivated to become a CASA volunteer because they wanted
to directly help abused children. |