Fighting for a child’s right to a safe, loving and permanent home.
Volunteers dedicated to the needs of abused and neglected children.
Our Mission
The mission of Fairfax CASA is to advocate for the best interests of each abused and neglected child referred by the Fairfax County Juvenile & Domestic Relations District Court through the promotion and support of quality volunteer representation.
We seek to ensure that each child’s needs are identified and addressed with the goal of living in a safe and permanent home. As permitted by our legislative charter, we also provide assistance to youths entering adulthood who have been referred to the CASA program by the Court, up to the age of 21.
Our Vision
Our vision is of a world where every abused or neglected child is given the opportunity to thrive in a safe and loving home.
Fairfax CASA is a nonprofit organization committed to advocating for the best interests of children with open abuse and neglect cases before the Fairfax County Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court. Fairfax CASA recruits, screens, trains, and professionally supervises volunteers (CASAs) dedicated to advocating for the needs of abused and neglected children in need of services or supervision. CASAs advocate for their children, making sure they have what they need to heal from the abuse they’ve experienced and help to find them safe and loving homes.
Fairfax CASA is the only court advocacy program for abused and neglected children in Fairfax County. It directly impacts the outcomes for our most vulnerable citizens, who are involved in our court and child welfare system, through no fault of their own. CASAs gather information about each child’s circumstances, focus on the safety and well-being of the child, and help keep the focus on the unique needs of the child. CASAs speak to caregivers, family members, and case professionals, visit regularly with the child, and review the child’s health, mental health, and school records.
CASAs work closely with the child’s social worker and the Guardian ad litem attorney appointed for the child. CASAs also collaborate with the professionals who provide case management, legal representation, and counseling services to help ensure the child remains safe and can be placed in a permanent home in a reasonable period of time. For each hearing, the CASAs write a detailed report to the Court, complete with case history, documented factual findings, and recommendations of family stabilization services.
In addition to Fairfax CASA’s court advocacy program, the organization works to promote and participate in collaborative efforts with other child-serving agencies on behalf of abuse and at-risk children and to raise community awareness about the long-term impact of child abuse and childhood trauma.
CASA is key to fulfilling society’s most fundamental obligation of ensuring those child victims of abuse and neglect can grow up in safe and nurturing homes where they can reach their full potential.
You can be a CASA! If you want to help children and can dedicate around 15-20 hours per month, we can provide the rest! Your donations can help us assign a CASA for each child referred by the court. It costs over $200 to train a volunteer and approximately $1,700 to serve a child for a full year. Please use the button below to make a donation using your credit card. You will receive an email confirmation and a letter of thanks by postal mail.
How We Accomplish Our Mission
We are there for the child
Whatever their age, children removed from home because of abuse or neglect face a frightening, profound unknown. We make sure they don’t face it alone. We stand by them. We are there whenever they need us, for as long as it takes to secure a safe, permanent home. We are strong, compassionate adults who provide a consistent presence, who care, who listen, and who put the child’s interests before all others.
We give children a say in what is happening to them. We speak for them when they cannot speak for themselves. We help them heal and thrive. We give them the support they need to become happy, successful adults. We help them find the road home, wherever it lies.
We are there for the judge
To make decisions that affect the rest of a child’s life, judges need to know the child. We help them do that.
We take the time to get to know the child at the heart of each case. We go where they go. We talk to the people who touch their lives—parents and foster parents, family members, teachers, doctors, neighbors, friends, social workers, attorneys, and therapists. We gather the details only a dedicated volunteer with a caseload of one can deliver.
Every visit, call, and report we make gives judges what they need to act in the best interests of the child. Every detail helps judges move the child out of the system and into a permanent home.
We are there to change lives
And we do. Children who have a court-appointed volunteer receive more of the services that are critical to their well-being than children who don’t. They are more likely to succeed in school. And while their cases are among the most difficult and heartbreaking, children with court-appointed volunteers cycle through fewer foster placements and spend less time in foster care.
They reach safe, permanent homes and loving families more quickly. What’s that worth to a child? To a community? To a nation? The answer in dollars is impressive: $540 million a year in savings on foster care alone.
The answer in everything else we value as a society—health, happiness, resilience, hope, strength, human potential, faith in ourselves and in our neighbors—is beyond measure.