CASA SHaW

Court Appointed Special Advocates of Somerset, Hunterdon, and Warren Counties, Inc. (CASA SHaW) is a 501(c)3 non-profit which recruits, screens, trains, and supervises community volunteers to act as advocates in court for children in foster care. No fee is ever charged for this service. Each CASA volunteer undergoes a 34-hour training, extensive background checks and interviews, and is supervised by a staff social worker to ensure compliance with best practice standards, communicating regularly and formulating intervention strategies and recommendations. The court appoints CASA volunteers via a court order to a child in need of an advocate. That advocate meets with the child at least once every thirty days, interviews teachers, parents, foster parents, therapists, etc. - anyone close to the child - to find out what his or her needs are and reports those findings to the court with recommendations for services or interventions on that child's behalf. Reports are sent to the court each time a hearing is held on that child's behalf. CASA volunteers, who generally only take one case at a time, stay with their assigned child(ren) until permanency is achieved, specifically the child(ren) either goes home, is adopted, or goes into a relative care situation. A court order discharging the CASA is issued once each child's case closes.