CASA/LA Becomes an Organization to Watch

Los Angeles Superior Court cut funding for the Court Appointed Special Advocates of Los Angeles (CASA/LA) almost exactly one year ago, in March 2010, thus making CASA/LA the first of the more than 1,000 CASA affiliates in the nation a completely independent and self-sustaining nonprofit. CASA exists so that children in foster care can have someone to be an advocate on their behalf. This job requires a lot of support to recruit volunteers and train and prepare advocates for court. CASA/LA had to release staff members and close intake for new cases after losing so much funding.

Before funding from the Superior Court was scaled back and then completely cut off, CASA/LA depended on the one million dollar annual funds granted by the court for about one half of their annual budget. Friends of Children's Advocates, CASA's fundraising arm, took over operations to keep CASA/LA on its feet after the cuts. Although the start of independence was rocky, running on half of their budget and staff for the first six months, CASA/LA leaders are hopeful for a bright future. CASA/LA Executive Director, Dilys Tosteson Garcia has set a goal to serve at least 1,000 children each year, in the past they have served between 500 and 600. She says, "In some ways (as a self sustaining organizations), we're freer to have more aggressive goals."

CASA/LA's budget also seems to be improving. Just a year after losing half of it, Garcia estimates that $1.5 million in funding is secured for this year's budget, a $500,000 improvement from what they've been working with. The national CASA president, Michael Piraino, weighed in on CASA/LA's funding cuts and inspirational work as a self-sustaining organization saying, "It's exciting to see how they're handling it."

There has been talk about making other CASA affiliates self-sustaining organizations as well. It even appears that some affiliates may already be preparing to make the shift by creating fundraising arms. Piraino says a third of CASA's programs are government administered. While cautioning that there are no plans to make a shift to self-sustaining for other affiliates in the immediate future, Piraino says, "It's certainly something people are talking about. There are so many places where county and state budgets are so stretched. It's a consideration in a good number of places."

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