I recently had a friend ask me what was my favorite charity that involved child abuse? Somewhat of an oxy moron, I think. Truth be told I didn’t have a “favorite” but of all the amazing organizations that do so much to protect children, this one truly spoke to me. That organization was CASA which is not a home but an organization that’s goal is to provide a good one for the half million children currently stuck in our court systems due to child abuse or neglect.

When we hear about cases of child abuse and neglect I think we often assume that the court system more or less has it handled, sadly that wasn’t always the case. In 1977, there was one judge, David Soukup, that simply couldn’t sleep at night worrying about all the children that came through his court and were often “lost in the system” for months at a time.

In 1977, he asked his bailiff to see if he could gather a few volunteers, that they might be able to train to follow these children through the court system and guide them through a very scary time. Judge Soukup was shocked when 50 people arrived at his first meeting and shortly thereafter, CASA was formed. CASA stands for Court Appointed Special Advocates and these volunteers truly become advocates for abused and neglected children.

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In 1994 CASA went national and was in every state in the country. Judge Souklup retired from the bench and became a CASA volunteer himself and said he ended up right where he started up at 4am worrying about his “kids.” Because of people like Judge Soukup today over 2 million children have been served by Court Appointed Special Advocates.  One person can make a difference.

Charity Matters.

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