Chesterfield CASA
    Who will speak for Annie?
                              ...CASA will!
History of CASA

The CASA concept was initiated in Seattle, Washington in 1977 by the Honorable David Soukup. Judge Soukup realized that he did not have enough information to make an informed decision about the future of neglected and abused children coming before him. In his effort to garner more information, Judge Soukup conceived the idea of using trained community volunteers to speak for the best interest of children in court. The program proved so successful that soon judges across the country adopted the idea.



In 1982 the National CASA Association was formed to unify the movement and provide leadership to local programs. Today there are more than 1,000 CASA programs nationwide, with nearly 70,000 women and men speaking up for abused and neglected children as CASA volunteers.
   
Chesterfield CASA joins 26 other programs in Virginia providing advocacy services through the CASA model. We serve the 12th District Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court, which includes Chesterfield County and Colonial Heights. We received our 501 (c) 3 status in 1996 and began assigning volunteers to cases in 1997.