CASA Cares

Overcoming challenges facing the voice of southwest Oklahoma’s foster children

  • CASA of Southwest Oklahoma Executive Director Wilma Whittaker, standing, and Advocate Supervisor Leigh Smallwood are here to educate volunteers about the CASA program. Whitaker and Smallwood work side-by-side to promote program awareness and assist advocates to successfully ensure each CASA child has a promising future.
    CASA of Southwest Oklahoma Executive Director Wilma Whittaker, standing, and Advocate Supervisor Leigh Smallwood are here to educate volunteers about the CASA program. Whitaker and Smallwood work side-by-side to promote program awareness and assist advocates to successfully ensure each CASA child has a promising future.

    LAWTON - Foster children often come from homes where abuse and/or neglect is commonplace. Those children are victims who need someone to champion for them. This is where CASA steps in.

    CASA (Court Appointed Spe-cial Advocates) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and network of specially selected and trained community volunteers who campaign for the children’s best interests and overall well-being. CASA volunteers work with the children’s foster families, schools, counsellors, doctors, as well as with the courts to help ensure the children have a promising future.

    CASA of Southwest Oklahoma currently provides advocacy for more than 400 foster children living in Comanche, Cotton, Greer, Jackson, Jefferson, Kiowa and Stephens counties.

    “Our mission is to advocate for these children so they may be placed in safe, loving and per-manent homes where they may thrive,” explains CASA of South-west Oklahoma Executive Direc-tor Wilma Whittaker.

    Like many nonprofit organizations, financial support program awareness and volunteerism present challenges to the expanding CASA program, but Whittaker remains optimistic.

    Working with an annual bud-get of $300,000, about 70% of their funding comes from federal and state grants, which are typically earmarked for specific needs. How does this organization find funding to be able to pay for advertising, networking, recruiting and training volunteers as well as other expenses?

    CASA relies heavily on fund-raisers such as their Jingle Jog 5K held in December, Hats and Heels Gala and Playhouse Raffle in May, as well as contributions from close to 100 steady donors to meet its other obligations.

    While these forms of income cover the current caseload, there are many more children in state custody who need advocacy.

    Since 2015, the CASA caseload has more than quadrupled. CASA originally covered Comanche County, but now serves six additional counties across the south-west region.

    “We are grateful for the sup-port of the communities,” said Whittaker, “and with the expansion of our services, we are looking at ways to acquire more funding.”

    Program awareness has been an obstacle for many nonprofits as well. CASA of Southwest Oklahoma has recently gained support from the communities through advertising on Facebook and other media. With more than 1,100 Facebook followers, CASA of Southwest Oklahoma regularly posts and interacts with followers to keep them in the loop.

    Recruiting volunteers presents another challenge CASA is facing. While volunteerism is the foundation of the operation, taking time to interview and train accepted volunteers takes resources away from the pro-gram’s current caseload. Whittaker says CASA plans to launch a recruitment campaign this summer which will also help gain an understanding of what CASA really does for the children and hopefully put potential volunteers’ minds at ease.

    Whittaker added that CASA provides support to about 25% of the children throughout the Southwest region.

    The goal for the upcoming fiscal year is to serve 35% to 40% of those children in state custody. It’s a fairly aggressive goal, but she believes it can be done.

    For more information about supporting and/or volunteering for CASA of Southwest Oklahoma, call (580) 248-CASA.