CASA NEW YORK CITY
ACCOMPLISHMENTS IN 2007

Brief Overview

CASA concluded its 28th year of operation, remaining steadfast to its original-and only-mission: to recruit, train and supervise volunteers to advocate on behalf of New York City's foster children to move them quickly through the bureaucratic maze of foster care and into safe, permanent homes where they can thrive.

CASA's volunteer advocates served 1,582 children from 897 families during the year. This represents a 20% increase from the 1,318 children from 768 families CASA served in 2006. Of the children served in 2007, 32% were between birth and five years of age; 27% were between six and eleven; 41% were between 12 and 21. The overwhelming majority of the children were members of minority groups-54% Black (non-Hispanic), 28% Hispanic origin and 14% from other minorities or unknown ethnicity.

Recruitment and Training of Volunteers

Recruitment and training of new volunteers is critical to sustaining our capacity to serve the children who are so in need of our services. One of the goals of the three-year Strategic Plan approved by the CASA Board in November 2006 is to develop new sources of volunteer recruitment. Toward the end of 2007, a number of current volunteer advocates formed a group specifically to recruit a substantial number of new volunteers. Increasing our number of advocates will enable CASA not only to intake additional cases, but to better serve the children whose cases have already been assigned. All prospective volunteers are screened, subjected to a thorough background check and participate in a 30-hour training series based on a curriculum designed by the National CASA Association. It is only after these prerequisites are successfully met that the volunteers are sworn in as CASA advocates and begin taking cases.

During 2007, we trained an additional 92 volunteers in four sessions. A total of 172 individuals served as advocates at one time or another-a 14% increase from 2006. Of the group, 91 percent were female and 9 percent were male. The group was ethnically diverse with 19 percent Black (non-Hispanic), 8 percent Hispanic origin and 10 percent from various other minorities, including Chinese, Japanese and Pakistani, among others. An overwhelming majority (93 percent) are either college graduates or have attended college, and 20 percent have earned graduate degrees.

CASA is fortunate to be a field placement for a number of schools of social work in the New York City area, including Columbia, NYU, Hunter and others. A total of 13 graduate and undergraduate student interns joined us for the 2007-2008 school year in mid-September. Because some of the students are with us 21 hours a week and others 14 hours a week, they take larger caseloads than our part-time volunteer advocates.

Comprehensive, in-service training continues to be an important component of our overall training efforts. During the year, CASA staff and volunteers participated in more than 25 in-service trainings at CASA and elsewhere.

Among the topics covered were:

* Overview of Early Intervention, presented at CASA

* Interstate Compact for the Placement of Children, presented at CASA

* Birth Parents in Family Court, presented at CASA

* Services for Adolescents in Foster Care, presented at CASA

* Uniting for Youth: Creative Strategies to Engage Youth and Their Families, presented by ACS

* Adolescents: New Policies, Practices and Youth Voices, presented by Resource Network at the Hunter College School of Social Work

* Choosing a Solid Foundation for Success: Understanding Early Child Education in NYC, presented by The Children's Aid Society

* Juvenile Delinquency Prevention: Is New York City Doing Enough?, presented by Association of the Bar of the City of New York

* One Year Later: A Forum Reviewing the Status of Child Welfare in New York City, presented by Public Advocate Betsy Gottbaum in partnership with the Hunter School of Social Work

* Working with Foster Children with Incarcerated Parents, a half-day session presented by the Women in Prison Project of the Correctional Association of New York and the Osborne Association

For the first time, CASA was invited to participate in an all-day symposium sponsored by the New York State Office of Children and Family Services. The meeting, Sharing Success V: Collaborating to Improve Outcomes for Families Affected by Substance Abuse, brought together several hundred individuals involved in child welfare to hear presentations on what has been accomplished and what still needs to be done to improve outcomes for families affected by substance abuse. CASA representatives at the conference included the Executive Director, Director of Development and Marketing, Program Director, Director of Training and Advocate Services and the Borough Coordinators.

Special Initiatives

CASA continued its involvement in an Adolescent Initiative and began seeking major funding for an initiative involving children with incarcerated parents.

The Adolescent Initiative focuses on the most vulnerable group in foster care-children between the ages of 12 and 21 who are approaching the time when they will age out of foster care. CASA undertook this initiative to ensure that all services for adolescents to whom it is assigned are in place (medical, financial, housing, employment, education) and that the adolescents remain in foster care as long as possible while CASA explores community resources that will provide family-like environments for them once they leave foster care.

From the time CASA began taking assignments on October 1, 2005 through the end of 2007, judges assigned 535 cases for children age 12 and up to CASA advocates. These advocates assure that the adolescents receive the services they need. To guide the advocates in their work on behalf of adolescents, CASA developed an internal checklist covering services that were in place prior to CASA's assignment and that were put in place as a result of CASA's assignment. The checklist is divided into two sections-services provided during foster care placement and services provided in preparation for discharge from foster care placement.

The Office of Court Administration Taskforce on Adolescents has developed a checklist for the judges to use. Among the very first items on the checklist are boxes for the judge to check whether or not CASA has been appointed to the case.
CASA worked closely with the Taskforce on developing protocols for monthly "Teen Days" in each of the five boroughs. It was not common practice for adolescents to be in the courtroom when their cases were heard.  The Teen Day initiative is an effort to change practice by involving the teens and providing them with information that will empower them to participate in the planning for their future.

With regard to the second initiative, CASA is seeking funding to launch a new three-year, city-wide initiative entitled Project Family Connect (PFC) aimed at creating systemic change through program development and practice in the way in which the Family Court system and the Administration for Children's Services responds to cases involving children in foster care who have an incarcerated parent. By working with all stakeholders involved in child welfare cases to create, implement and sustain best practices, PFC will spur the reforms necessary to ensure that the particular needs of children in foster care with incarcerated parents are identified and addressed. We have received two grants toward the project to begin the initial phase and are hopeful of receiving a major grant during the first quarter of 2008 to fund the remainder of the project.

Sustaining the Program

The CASA Board is actively working to broaden our individual donor base to assure our capacity to retain our current staffing level and program quality. A major boost during the past year was the establishment of a Junior Board, an idea conceived by one of our student interns and the Executive Director. Since its inception in January 2006, the Junior Board has raised, through member contributions and contributions of members' contacts, more than $115,000. including just over $50,000 at an October 4, 2007 fundraising event-a substantial increase from the $21,000 it raised at its 2006 event.

A newly formed Governance Committee of the CASA Board is seeking new Board members who have the potential to broaden the scope of expertise on the Board, as well as significantly increase our support from individuals and institutions with which the new Board member might be affiliated. During 2007, the Board elected five new members. At its November 2006 meeting, the Board approved a three-year strategic plan, establishing measurable goals for the organization's growth during that period. The agenda for the May 2007 Board meeting allowed for most of the time to be spent as a follow-up for the purpose of orientation and training of new Board members and further discussing the strategic plan. Recognizing the need for a third supervisor in Brooklyn in order for CASA to have the capacity to accept the overwhelming increase in cases, the Office of Court Administration has funded that added staff position. That position has been filled.

As a result of the added position in Brooklyn, CASA now has nine Advocate Supervisors-three in Brooklyn and two each in the Bronx, Manhattan and Queens. The remainder of the professional staff consists of an Executive Director, a Director of Training and Advocate Services, a Program Director who also works on cases, a Director of Development and Marketing and a part-time Office Administrator. All of the program staff have MSW or JD degrees and most are Licensed Master Social Workers. The Executive Director is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker.
Program evaluation and development is ongoing, and maintaining the program staff to carry out the program is essential.

Competitive salaries and benefits are key to attracting and retaining the best-qualified individuals for the program staff. Even though CASA serves the family courts, less than 25 percent of our annual operating budget is derived from public sources; thus, institutional and individual support is crucial to our ability to carry out our work. We are diligent in keeping our administrative and fundraising expenses low. Last year, more than 80 cents of every dollar we raised was spent on program and less than 20 cents on administration and fundraising.

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