There is a Portage County child in need waiting for a volunteer like you.
Every child deserves to have a caring, consistent adult in their corner.
The time is now. There are dozens of children in Portage County in need of a CASA volunteer right now.
Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) volunteers are community members from all walks of life. Our program offers comprehensive training and continued support. Volunteers then advocate for a child’s best interest in court.
These are local children who experience abuse and neglect. Many are in the foster care system.
CASA volunteers can make a life-changing, positive difference for children in our community experiencing abuse and neglect. A child’s advocate is often the one constant in their life.
If you have the heart, we have the opportunity.
Learn about our work:
CASA of Portage County is part of a state and national network.
The CASA movement began in 1977 when Judge David Soukup of Seattle, Washington, first recruited community volunteers to speak as guardians ad litem on behalf of abused and neglected children in court. Judge Soukup felt frustrated that he was expected to make serious decisions regarding children with no feedback from the child and only limited information from others involved in the case. He wanted to develop a way to bring more complete information to juvenile judges so that they could better protect children. CASA volunteers proved to be an effective way to help the courts avoid inappropriate and unduly long foster care placements. As a result, other states began to adopt the idea.
The first CASA program was founded in Ohio in October 1980 in Lucas County (Toledo) by Judge Andy Devine, with help from the Junior League. Judge Devine had attended a presentation about the CASA program in Tennessee, which inspired him to take the idea back to his community. The Lucas County CASA/GAL program was third in the nation. CASA programs in Akron and Cincinnati soon followed. Our program launched in 2022. Today, there are 48 programs in 62 counties in Ohio.
You can learn more about the Ohio CASA/GAL Association here and the National CASA/GAL Association here.