Court Appointed Special Advocate volunteers (CASAs) are appointed by Superior Court judges. The CASA model, established in 1977, provides CASAs for children in the court system. These dedicated and trained community members advocate for the best interests of the children and youth involved in the dependency and juvenile justice systems and provide consistent, caring adult support to them.

CASAs often provide advocacy and support congruent with the objectives of many class action suits, including education, employment, housing and financial stability, as well as medical and mental health services.

California has the largest foster care population in the nation, with about 72,000 children. Today, we have 44 local programs covering 52 of California’s 58 counties, serving more than 12,000 children with the help of almost 9,000 trained volunteers. However, this is only 17% of the children in foster care. Sacramento County has over 1,100 children in foster care, and CASA Sacramento currently has the program capacity to serve around 15% of these youth at any given time.

California Code of Civil Procedure §384 specifically identifies “child advocacy programs” as proper recipients of residual class action funds. By choosing Court Appointed Special Advocates of Sacramento County (CASA Sacramento), class action parties are ensuring justice for our most vulnerable population—abused and neglected children and youth.

CASA Sacramento has successfully utilized settlement funds to expand direct services and training resources to benefit youth in the dependency and juvenile justice systems who deserve to feel cared for and know that their voice matters.