CASA of Western Oklahoma, Inc

PROJECT PURPOSE

CASA of Western Oklahoma recruits and trains community volunteers to advocate for abused and neglected children in Custer, Washita, Dewey, Beckham, and Roger Mills counties. We have seen an increase in the number of cases requested from our judges due to COVID. We need to recruit and train as many volunteers as we can quickly. The requirements for background checks on our volunteers have increased, along with the price. We are needing immediate funds to recruit by newspaper and radio to educated the public on the need for volunteers and then have the funds to properly screen each volunteer that goes through training.

EVIDENCE

Our 5 counties, plus our Family Treatment Court , are requesting cases at a rate, that our program can not keep up with using our current volunteer base. We need to fast track our recruitment/training efforts across 5 counties to meet these needs. With proper funds to get the word out to the public in all 5 counties, CASA of Western Oklahoma will follow-up with all requests and utilize a hybrid version of National CASA training curriculum. We will train new volunteers half on-line and half in-person training to meet geographical difficulties with such a wide service area.

POPULATION DESCRIPTION

CASA of Western Oklahoma serves abused/neglected children across five rural counties. We have seen an increase in case requests since COVID, and many cases are returning cases that had previously been reunified. The stress of COVID has definitely affected our poverty families, adding extreme stress to their lives.

PERFORMANCE MEASURING

We use Optima to gather data for our program.

ONGOING INVESTMENT AMOUNT

$

ONGOING INVESTMENT DESCRIPTION

None

ONGOING INVESTMENT REQUIRED

One-time project will not need continued funding