About the Cass County, Nebraska CASA Program
Located in the Cass County Annex Building
Cass County CASA Program
346 Main Street (inside Annex Building)
Plattsmouth, NE 68048
Angie Neumiller, Program Director
Phone: (402) 296-9520
The mission of the Cass County CASA Program
To provide court-approved volunteer advocacy to abused and neglected children in order to provide a safe, permanent, nurturing home for every child it serves. The goal of the program is to represent the best interests of all abused, abandoned, and neglected children as appointed in conjunction with the court system in Cass County.
History of Cass County CASA
In the summer of 2004, the Cass County Attorney, the Cass County Diversion Director, and other leaders of the community recognized a need to serve the abused and neglected children in Cass County. The first Cass County CASA program meeting was held on July 22, 2004 with nine Cass County CASA planning committee members present. This committee met on a regular basis involving itself in setting up all program standards and requirements to meed the National Provisional Membership so that our organization could begin to meet the national and state requirements to become recognized and to enable our program to carry on business as the Cass County CASA Program. In January, 2006 the National CASA granted the provisional membership. The board then began the task of writing grants, job descriptions, and personnel manuals, setting goals and hiring a Director. In July of 2006 a Director was hired and the Cass County CASA Program started to become a reality.
After some changes in staff, an office was established in the Cass County Courthouse, and the first class of 6 CASA volunteers was sworn-in on July 25Th 2007. A second class joined them in October 2007, and by the end of that year 10 Cass County CASA Volunteers were advocating for 22 children.
As of May 1, 2010, there are 13 sworn in volunteers advocating for 27 children
National CASA History
In 1977, a Seattle Superior Court Judge named David Soukup was concerned about trying to make decisions on behalf of abused and neglected children without enough information. He conceived the idea of appointing community volunteers to speak up for the best interests of these children in court. He made a request for volunteers; 50 citizens responded, and that was the start of the CASA movement.
Today, there are more than 70,900 advocates serving in 1,055 state and local program offices nationwide. CASA programs across the country are known by several different names, including Guardian ad Litem, Child Advocates and Voices for Children.
Since the inception of CASA advocacy, volunteers have helped more than 2 million children find safe, permanent homes in which they can thrive.
