About Us
About CASAThe Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) was created in 1977 by Superior Court Judge David Soukup of Seattle, Washington, who felt he needed more information about the foster care children he saw everyday in his courtroom.
“In criminal and civil cases, even though there were always many different points of view, you walked out of the courthouse at the end of the day and you said, ‘I’ve done my best; I can live with the decision.’
“But when you’re involved with a child and you’re trying to decide what to do to facilitate that child’s growth into a mature and happy adult, you don’t feel like you have sufficient information to allow you to make the right decision. “You can’t walk away and leave them at the courthouse at 4 o’clock. You wonder, ‘Do I really know everything I should? Have I really been told all of the different things? Is this really right?”
To ensure he was getting all the facts and that the long-term welfare of each child was being represented, Judge Soukup came up with an idea that would change America's judicial procedure and the lives of thousands of children. He obtained funding to recruit and train community volunteers to step into courtrooms on behalf of the children: the Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) volunteers. Today there are 900+ CASA programs across the country, with a cadre of some 50,000 CASA volunteers advocating on behalf of abused and neglected children.
About ProKidsProKids was founded in 1981 through the joint efforts of the Junior League of Cincinnati the Cincinnati Bar Association, and the Hamilton County Juvenile Court. At the time, there were only 25 CASA programs nationwide and ProKids was the second in Ohio.