Welcome to CASA, First Judicial District
Serving Santa Fe, Rio Arriba, and Los Alamos Counties since 1995
In northern New Mexico, over 1,200 reports of abuse and neglect of children are investigated every year, resulting in hundreds of child victims, approximately 40% of them under the age of 5. These small victims suddenly find themselves without a home, among strangers. The problem is so serious that in 2005 Governor Richardson proclaimed April as New Mexico Child Abuse Prevention and Awareness Month.
Although the numbers are disheartening, the Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) program of the First Judicial District has been helping to make a difference since 1995. We train, support and promote volunteers from Santa Fe, Rio Arriba, and Los Alamos counties to speak for the best interest of these children in court in order to help them reach safe, permanent homes.
CASA volunteers watch over and advocate for these abused and neglected children to make sure they don’t get lost in the overburdened legal system or languish in an inappropriate group or foster home. Recognized in 2005 with a Legislative Memorial for ten years of service, CASA’s 60+ volunteers annually represent over 100 children in our three-county area.
Our program and its success in working with teen foster youth was recognized by National CASA Association and featured in their 2010 Annual Report.
You can find this and other Court Appointed Special Advocate related videos on
You Tube.
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"You go into a court
room and you will see lawyers who know the law and have dozens of kids'
files, or you have social workers who know the regulations and have
dozens of kids' files. But if a CASA volunteer is in the room, you will
see they have just one file, and what they know is that one child. And that can make all the difference to a judge's decision regarding how the rest of that child's life is going to go."
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and bestselling author Anna Quindlen on CBS' "The Early Show"
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