Our Mission
CASA of Trinity Valley provides independent, highly trained volunteer advocates for children in the custody of Texas Department of Family and Protective Services in Anderson, Cherokee and Henderson counties.
We empower volunteers to advocate for the children’s best interests, to ensure that their needs are met, and to secure a permanent, safe, and nurturing home as soon as possible.
About CASA of Trinity Valley
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 50,000 advocates serving in 948 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 well over 1,000,000 children find safe, permanent homes in which they can thrive.
CASA of Trinity Valley is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization governed by a volunteer board of directors and is a member of the National and Texas CASA Associations. There are around 1,000 CASA programs nationwide and 74 CASA programs in the state of Texas.
History
In 1976, Superior Court Judge David Soukup of Seattle, WA, saw a recurring problem in his courtroom: in criminal and civil cases, even though there were always many different points of view, you walked out of the courthouse at the end of the day and you said, ‘I’ve done my best; I can live with this decision,’ he explains.
“But when you’re involved with a child and you’re trying to decide what to do to facilitate that child’s growth into a mature and happy adult, you don’t feel like you have sufficient information to allow you to make the right decision. You can’t walk away and leave them at the courthouse at 4 o’clock. You wonder, ‘Do I really know everything I should? Have I really been told all of the different things? Is this really right?’”
To ensure he was getting all the facts and the long-term welfare of each child was being represented, the Seattle judge came up with an idea that would change America’s judicial procedure and the lives of thousands of children. He obtained funding to recruit and train community volunteers to step into courtrooms on behalf of the children: the Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) volunteers.
This unique concept was implemented in Seattle as a pilot program in January 1977. During that first year, the program provided 110 trained CASA volunteers for 498 children in 376 dependency cases.
CASA of Trinity Valley was established in November 1994 under the direction of 173rd District Judge Jack Holland, in an effort to address the needs of abused children in the courts of Henderson County, Texas. We expanded into Anderson County in 1998 and into Cherokee County in 2002 and now cover a three county service area in east Texas. Program growth has occurred due to the increase in the number of victims of child abuse and neglect in our three-county area needing advocacy services. We serve 7 courts and are ranked just below the major cities of Dallas, San Antonio, Houston, Austin, and Fort Worth at 6th in the state according to number of children served annually. We have also gained the status of being Guardian ad Litem due to the level of advocacy we provide to the children.
We have established permanent offices in Athens, Jacksonville and Palestine. In 2023, we finished the renovation and interior construction of our newest office in Palestine, directly across from the Anderson County court house!
CASA of Trinity Valley continues to serve every child who enters the foster care system and is committed to ensuring children end up in safe, permanent homes.