From The National CASA CEO Michael Piraino:

We believe that each abused or neglected child deserves to have someone who is trained to speak up for them and push for the best possible outcome to a terrible situation.

The work and the support come from the heart. But in these uncertain economic times, as each of us examines our expenditures, supporting CASA is a wise and modest investment.

There are roughly 800,000 children in foster care annually, at an estimated cost to taxpayers of $2,396 per month per child; last year, CASA programs served 243,000. It costs only $80 per month to provide a CASA volunteer, a very modest investment compared to the cost of keeping a child in foster care for another month. So let’s look at the return on that investment.

A 2006 US Department of Justice audit of CASA found that 13.3% of all foster children remain in care more than three years, as opposed to 5.5% of children with a CASA volunteer. Even if the children we served last year end up spending an average of one month less in foster care than they would have otherwise, that would mean a savings of $582 million—and I’m comfortable saying that we’re talking about a lot more than one month.

The long-run savings are potentially enormous. A study by Prevent Child Abuse America (September 2007) estimates the annual cost of child abuse and neglect is a staggering $103.8 billion.

There’s going to be a lot of debate in this country and in every household over where to place our resources. Even setting aside all the reasons of the heart, there’s a compelling case to be made that investing in these children (and supporting CASA) is the sort of sound economic policy that we should all be able to agree on.

Please support your local CASA Corridor of East TN and help us make a difference in a child's life.