In the mid 1970’s Seattle Superior Court Judge David Soukup realized he was making life changing decisions for and about abused and neglected children without having all the information he needed. Although the attorneys in his courtroom were arguing strenuously on behalf of their clients no one was focusing on the best interests of the children. Judge Soukup began training community volunteers to assume that responsibility. The Seattle program was so successful judge across the country began using citizen advocates. In 1990, the U.S. Congress encouraged the expansion of CASA with passage of the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act. Today more than 900 CASA programs are in operation, with 70,000 women and men serving as CASA volunteers.
The CASA Project is a member in good standing of the National CASA Association.
How The CASA Project serves the children of Worcester County
The CASA Project serves on care and protection cases in the Worcester Juvenile Court and the Juvenile Sessions held in the District Courts of Dudley, Milford, Fitchburg and Leominster.
1981 - CASA trained 26 volunteers who served 84 children
In 2004 the Department of Social Services received 70,417 reports of abuse and neglect. 8,828 calls were processed by the Central Region. In 2004, 420 Care and Protection cases were opened in Worcester County Juvenile Courts making them the busiest in the Commonwealth. The CASA Project opened 77 new cases involving 144 new children in 2005 more than have been assigned in any previous year. We served a total of 380 boys and girls identified as victims in 191 cases.
