A Frustrated Judge Had an Idea
In 1976, a Superior Court judge in Seattle heard a case that made him desperate. A three-year-old girl appeared to have been abused, but her mother maintained she had fallen out of a swing and that the mother’s boyfriend was not around. “Do I take this child out of the only home she’s ever known, or do I pick up the paper in three weeks to read that the boyfriend killed the child?” asked the judge. He needed more information.
Judge David Soukup called in four local people to discuss the possible use of volunteers as caseworkers. When he got to the meeting, 50 people were there.
Soon, judges across the country began utilizing citizen advocates, who formed the National CASA Association as a private, non-profit organization.
New York City CASA was formed in 1979. The staff and volunteers worked out of a single room in Manhattan Family Court.
Over the years, New York City CASA has expanded to serve all five boroughs.
New York City CASA has grown dramatically in these 29-plus years, but not as dramatically as the demand.
We are one of more than 900 CASA programs across the country, with almost 74,000 women and men serving as volunteers in these programs. Last year, CASA volunteers helped more than 288,000 children in communities across the country.
