Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) is a unique, volunteer-based child advocacy organization dedicated to improving the lives of abused and neglected children in New York City foster care. These children are among the most vulnerable in the city, yet the agencies charged with serving them have historically been overloaded. As a result, our city’s children spend needless time in temporary homes – away from their families, schools, friends, and community, often lacking vital services, andCourt Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) is a unique, volunteer-based child advocacy organization dedicated to improving the lives of abused and neglected children in New York City foster care. These children are among the most vulnerable in the city, yet the agencies charged with serving them have historically been overloaded. As a result, our city’s children spend needless time in temporary homes – away from their families, schools, friends, and community, often lacking vital services, and without the most fundamental sense of security and belonging that all children deserve. Currently, New York ranks 50th out of 52 states (including DC and Puerto Rico) in timeliness to permanency for children in foster care.
CASA-NYC has one mission: to ensure that children who have been removed from their homes because of abuse or neglect do not spend needless time in foster care, that they are returned to rehabilitated and loving parents, freed for adoption or prepared to leave foster care and live on their own. CASA gives a face to each child in care, and simultaneously humanizes the system for those impacted by it. Trained by professional staff to provide one-on-one, individually tailored advocacy, CASA’s citizen volunteers ensure that children receive the critical services they need, and do not languish for years in care, bouncing from home to home.
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