Donate Now: Your Gift Ignites Hope!
YOU can be the difference!
Children who have experienced abuse or neglect face a frightening journey: courtrooms, foster care, new schools, and a revolving door of professionals all while carrying the trauma they have endured. Your donation ensures they never walk this path alone. At CASA of Jefferson & Gilpin Counties, we provide Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) volunteers - a consistent person a child can rely on.
Maximize Your Generosity! YOU can help a child in need!
Your gift provides a child with a constant person they can trust, helping them navigate complex legal and welfare systems.
Ignite hope for a local child!
Your contribution is the fuel that powers this essential advocacy: It funds the highly trained CASA volunteer who gets to know each child and their specific needs. It ensures the child's voice is heard in an overwhelmed court system. It supports the work of keeping the child safe and ensuring the shortest possible path to a permanent, loving home.
District Court Judge Lindsay L. VanGilder states: "CASA is an amazing organization that performs a critical service for the most vulnerable children in our community, and I have had the privilege of working with many of the volunteers and employees of CASA Jefferson Gilpin Counties in my capacity as Presiding Juvenile Judge. CASAs do difficult and meaningful work. They are entrusted with representing children’s best interests, a responsibility they take seriously. CASA volunteers may notice and raise safety issues that are missed by others, thereby assisting the Court in entering orders to keep children safe. Importantly, CASA volunteers are often able to develop meaningful relationships with children that extend past the time of court involvement. These relationships are life-changing for children and young people who grow up in the child welfare system and do not otherwise have trusted and constant support from adults in their lives. A CASA’s insight into the individualized needs of a child helps the courts improve outcomes in terms of health and wellbeing and stability and permanency. I have seen how children in the child welfare system can benefit from the support of a CASA, and I am extraordinarily grateful for their support and partnership in the 1st JD. They contribute significantly to the meaningful work being done on behalf of our children and families."
The mission at CASA Jeffco/Gilpin is to recruit, train and manage volunteers who serve as independent lay advocates for children who are victims of neglect and physical and/or sexual abuse. Our hope is that all children will have a CASA volunteer as someone to pay attention, someone to give the child a voice, someone to care.
The inspiration for CASA began with Seattle Juvenile Court Judge David Soukup in 1976. Faced with making a life-changing decision for a 3-year-old girl who had suffered abuse, he realized he lacked the information needed to determine what was truly best for her.
From that moment, the idea began to grow: children who experienced abuse or neglect needed trained volunteers advocating for them in the courtroom. The idea spread quickly. By 1982, National CASA had formed, and in 1990 the U.S. Congress authorized its expansion through the Victims of Child Abuse Act ensuring that a “court-appointed special advocate shall be made available to every victim of child abuse or neglect in the United States that needs such an advocate.”
When you become a CASA volunteer, you are joining over 95,000 other CASA volunteers all over the nation! CASA Jeffco/Gilpin is just ONE of 948 programs in 49 states and the District of Columbia. Since it’s inception, CASA volunteers have served over 1 MILLION children across the country.
CASA Jeffco/Gilpin was incorporated in July 2000 to improve representation of abused and neglected children in the 1st Judicial District of Colorado. Our first class of nine volunteers was sworn in February 2001, serving 51 children that year. Today, we have 180 active volunteers and have served more than 5,400 child abuse victims.
YOU can join them! YOU can change the story for a child.
Organization name
CASA of Jefferson and Gilpin Counties
other names
CASA Jeffco/Gilpin
2000
Tax id (EIN)
84-1530736
Category
Human Services, Youth Development
Organization Size
Large Organization
Colorado State Tax Credits
Colorado Child Care Credit
Address
100 Jefferson County Pkwy Suite 2505Jefferson County, CO, US
Gilpin County, CO, US