About the artist
In 1977, concerned over making decisions for abused and neglected children without sufficient information, a Seattle judge conceived the idea of using trained community volunteers to speak for the best interests of these children in court. So successful was this Seattle program that soon judges across the country began utilizing citizen advocates. In 1990, the U.S. Congress encouraged the expansion of CASA with passage of the Victims of Child Abuse Act.
Today more than 900 CASA programs are in operation nationwide with 70,000 women and men serving as CASA (court appointed special advocate) volunteers. The mission of the Missouri CASA Association is to improve the lives of abused and neglected children in Missouri by promoting the development, expansion, and improvement of CASA programs statewide. Currently there are over 1000 CASA volunteers speaking for over 2300 Missouri children through 21 local programs.
CASA of SW Missouri began in 1988 with one volunteer and now has nearly 125 people serving over 200 children. Our cover design is from their “Helping CASA Help Kids” program, which began in 2001 with a card contest. Not only does the contest raise funds for this local program, it encourages artistic development and community support for the children involved. The contest is open to children K-12. This particular “card” was designed by Korey, an 8-year old third grader. More information is available at their web site: www.casaswmo.org. General CASA information is found at: www.mocasa.net.
