Grant Recipients

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Voices for Children (VFC) believes that every child deserves a safe and permanent home. VFC provides a trained Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) volunteer to every abused, abandoned, or neglected child who needs one, and advocates to improve the lives of children in the foster care system. CASAs have two key objectives: get to know their child in order to understand his or her needs, worries, hopes and dreams; and use that information to advocate for the child's best interest to the judge making decisions on the case. Approximately 3,500 children spend time in San Diego County's foster care system each year and VFC will provide CASAs to 1,600 of the most vulnerable children.

Each year, VFC identifies at least 250 new potential CASA volunteers to meet the needs of children in foster care. This spring and summer, we are finding new ways to identify CASA volunteers since we cannot meet them in person. All new CASAs attend 25 house of training (now virtual) and are matched with a child in foster care upon completion. Judges depend on information provided by CASAs to make critical decisions on behalf of a child in foster care. With a CASA by their side, children in foster care are better equipped to overcome obstacles and reach their full potential.