Strategic Plan

Sacramento CASA Strategic and Fiscal Plan July 2004 – June 2007

1. ORGANIZATIONAL BACKGROUND
   The Sacramento CASA Program provides services to children in Sacramento County who have been removed from their homes due to allegations of abuse and/or neglect. Volunteers are appointed by the Juvenile Court to serve as officers of the court, acting as the court’s eyes and ears in the child’s life.

   When Sacramento CASA was incorporated as a private non-profit charitable organization in September 1991, Sacramento was the last major metropolitan area in California to establish a CASA program. Representatives of the Junior League of Sacramento, Inc., the Child Abuse Prevention Council of Sacramento, Inc., the Department of Health and Human Services and the Juvenile Court served as the founding Task Force, forming the new agency, and securing initial state, local and foundation funding.

   An Advisory Committee chaired by the Presiding Judge of the Juvenile Court provides expert planning and coordination of services. Professionals from various disciplines in the child protection system are represented. Legal and fiscal responsibility for the agency rests with a volunteer Board of Directors.

   CASA volunteers come from all walks of life. They have a variety of professional, educational and ethnic backgrounds. Volunteers are selected on the basis of their objectivity, competence and commitment. After being carefully screened, volunteers are trained. They learn about courtroom procedure, the social service and juvenile court system, and the special needs of children who have been abused.

2. STRATEGIC PLANNING PROCESS OVERVIEWThis plan is intended to articulate the SCASA program’s strategic direction for the next three to five years. This plan will help us determine and pursue a shared common direction through the identification of goals and strategies that will achieve the end results that are essential to achieving our mission. It will also focus the energy of our board and staff on the highest priorities. The goals provide the basis for decisions about the nature, scope and priority of the project and activities that we will undertake. The strategies describe the means by which we will achieve our goals. These will lead us to develop more short-term annual objectives with performance measures that will advance our strategic goals and give us an assessment of our progress each year.

   In preparation for this effort, the SCASA Board of Directors invested in a yearlong process of establishing a policy governance structure based on the principles established by John Carver in his book Boards That Make a Difference. Attached to this plan is a copy of our policy governance document. Of specific interest is the establishment of our “Ends Goals,” which serve as the foundation of our strategic and fiscal plan.

   The establishment of the Ends Goals was a board driven effort that was not validated by the key stakeholders of our organization: our volunteer advocates, the Sacramento Juvenile Court judiciary, and the various other individuals that support children in the dependency system, such as dependency attorneys and social workers. This strategic planning process strives to be more participatory and inclusive by reaching out to those key stakeholders, solicits their input and incorporates it into an expanded set of goals for the future.

   The planning process has been developed in several phases:

   1. Initial Development - In December 2003, we conducted a board and staff workshop to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of our organization and the vision for the future. Based on this discussion, the organization’s mission was reaffirmed and a process for obtaining stakeholder input was formulated. This process included development of key questions related to the strategic direction of Sacramento CASA for the next three to five years, starting with Fiscal-Year 2004-2005.
   2. Stakeholder Input - In January 2004, we conducted several focus group sessions to obtain input from our advocates, members of the judiciary and other professional groups that support the juvenile dependency system. These sessions focused on the questions developed by the Board and staff, as well as any additional input that the stakeholder’s felt was relevant to the strategic plan (e.g. demographic information, fiscal outlook, etc.)
   3. Confirmation and Refinement - In February 2004, we will also obtained input from the National and California CASA organizations, as well as other sister organizations that have similar missions. This data helped to refine our input and articulate strategies that will be effective in achieving our goals.
   4. Draft Review – In March 2004, we released a draft strategic and fiscal plan for review in the community. Through this draft review we are soliciting the endorsement of our stakeholders and begin the process of defining our specific performance measures for first year implementation of the new plan, starting in July 2004.
   5. Final Adoption - the SCASA Board of Directors at its annual retreat adopted the strategic and fiscal plan in May 2004.
3. MISSION AND VISION The purpose of the Sacramento Court Appointed Special Advocates Program is to serve the abused and neglected children in Sacramento, who come before the Juvenile Court for protection, by humanizing the complicated and often frightening legal and child welfare systems for the child victim. SCASA accomplishes this by providing a trained volunteer who acts as a mentor, role model, support person and advocate in court. Advocates provide consistent, long-term care to needy Sacramento children.
4. STATEGIC GOALS
   1. Visibility and Community Awareness – Increase visibility of the SCASA program, and the plight of dependent children, through publicity and community outreach.

      There are currently almost 5,000 children who are dependents of Sacramento County. It is anticipated that this “at risk” population will grow as much as 24% by the year 2020. The capacity of the systems and services designed to support these children is woefully overburdened now, it is unimaginable what it will be like in twenty years if resources continue to be constrained and there are no new or innovative programs designed to improve the quality of life for these children. It is imperative that SCASA and its sister agencies are visible in the community working to increase both political and financial support.

   2. Program and Fund Development –

      Develop and maintain various funding sources to expand the SCASA program to provide enough advocates to meet the growing needs of dependent children in Sacramento.

      While SCASA currently enjoys some level of government funding from the state and the county, this source of support is shrinking due to the competing budget pressures. Advocacy for dependent children is clearly not as high a priority as providing them with food, clothing and shelter. Furthermore, unless SCASA is able to increase its capacity to serve the county’s needs in this area, it will become increasingly difficult to provide any meaningful intervention for even the most compelling cases. While we can never expect to meet the needs of every child in the system, it is not unrealistic to set a long-term goal to serve 5-10% of these children. Currently we are only able to serve approximately 2% and that presents an incredible strain on our sole case supervisor who must handle double the recommended caseload.

   3. Board Recruitment and Development –

      Develop an effective board of director, which reflects the diversity in our community, seeking community leaders that are committed to the mission of the organization and able to contribute their time, skills and resources to the organization.
      
      SCASA has struggled, since its inception, to maintain a strong and effective Board of Directors. While Board Members may serve for three consecutive terms of two years each, few serve any more than one term. This has limited the Board’s ability to do long-range planning and be able to count on any continuity from its members. Furthermore, internal governance issues have created tension between the board and staff that have only recently been resolved by the adoption of the policy governance model. Our challenge is to make our Board Membership meaningful to a larger group of viable candidates, keep them motivated contributors, recognize the value of their time and expertise and hold them accountable for commitments made to the organization.

   4. Volunteer Recruitment, Development, and Retention –

      Develop a strong volunteer advocate cadre, that reflects the diversity of our dependency population, by focusing recruitment efforts and ensuring that advocates have ongoing development and support through effective recruitment, training, ongoing support and recognition.

      All volunteer organizations must face the ongoing challenge of maintaining its volunteer cadre. SCASA has the additional burden of needing to carefully screen candidates for suitability, provide them with extensive training, and support them through the volunteer experience that is intense, time consuming, and emotionally draining. While the average tenure for one of our advocates is approximately 30 months, many leave in less than a year due to the fact that the commitment required more of their time and energy than they ever imagined.

      In a study conducted in 2003, it was determined that the primary reasons why advocates left the program voluntarily was the time commitment required and/or the fact that the cases were more difficult or complex than they anticipated. Others expressed a sense of being overwhelmed by the level of victimization of dependent children, who are often lost in the system with no reinforcement of ties to existing family or any real plan for a permanent placement.

      In many cases, advocates also mentioned a lack of support on the part of the professionals that they had encountered in the child dependency system. A method needs to be developed to address this concern and find ways to keep these interested volunteers in the program at a lower level of intensity. With additional resources committed to identifying and categorizing cases based on degree of difficulty and length of commitment, we could do a better job at matching the skill and availability of the volunteer to the demands of each case.

   5. Community Advocacy –

      Advocate for the rights of all abused and neglected children in Sacramento County through ongoing efforts to promote adequate funding and support for programs that serve these children in the community.

      Direct advocacy for dependent children is not part of the primary mission of SCASA, but both the Board of Directors and the staff feel strongly that the plight of dependent children in this county, and throughout the state, is a cause for serious concern. As more children are removed from home for neglect or abuse, the social and fiscal costs are dramatically impacted.

      Since SCASA will never be able to directly serve all of the foster children in need, we believe that we must do what we can to reduce the number of children who are in the dependency system. This may be addressed through a combination of (1) general awareness activities designed to educate the people of Sacramento about the problems facing foster children and (2) involvement in the legislative and regulatory process that establishes policies that impact our children at risk. Of special concern are infants and toddlers in need of permanent placements as soon as possible and older children scheduled to be emancipated from the system at the age of 18 without adequate support systems.