Over the past few months, our country has had to have some difficult conversations. Many of these national conversations have shifted to our area and how we interact with one another. While Winnebago County residents are researching local resources, we wanted to take a moment and share the role of our CASA's. If you are interested in learning more, or becoming a CASA, please call 815-319-6880.

A CASA volunteer is the unbiased person in the courtroom who speaks up for what is best for the child. Why? In 1976, Honorable David W. Soukup found himself in the position of making life-altering decisions for a child, and needed someone who had no invested ties to bring that child’s voice to the court. Everyone in the courtroom has a personal bias from the parent that wants the child back, the family that would love to adopt the child, and even the caseworker who fights for the child but must also take in account the policies and procedures of their state’s child protective agency.

A CASA is a trained community citizen with their own life experiences that simply brings the voice of that child into the courtroom. We train our volunteers to be that unbiased voice. In order to do so, we must recognize that we all have biases, the systems we operate in bear their own systemic barriers that we have to learn to identify and work through, as well as many other factors related to child welfare, trauma, and resilience.

While we equip our advocates with the tools to recognize biases and systematic oppressions, by no means are we against any of our first responders, court personnel, and fellow child welfare workers. Many of these individuals are the ones who rescue and remove our children from the worst of situations. At the end of the day, we are fortunate enough to be a part of a strong integral team and to be in a position to assist and support each other for the sake of the best interests of the child