CASA Headquarters Moves to Brownsville Historical District

 

by Jim Barton on Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 10:28pm

CASA, which stands for Court Appointed Special Advocates is an organization representing our community's most precious resource~our children. The local chapter represents the severest of cases of child abuse, neglect and domestic violence in Cameron and Willacy Counties. Seven administrators and staff supervise 58 local volunteers who monitor between 250 and 300 seriously at-risk children.
Over 2000 children are removed from their households in Cameron and Willacy County each year being placed in foster care. Child Protective Services has a huge workload as do the family courts in sorting out what is individually best for these children. CASA plays a unique role in all of this by providing an individual representative or advocate from the community to closely monitor the family situation, educational development and overall wellbeing of these young ones. These volunteers are carefully screened with the appropriate background check, then given training by the staff which includes observation time at family court.


Nena and I had an opportunity to visit with the staff at their new headquarters in the Brownsville Historical District at 647 E. St. Charles. The previous location on Price Road had fire damage rendering the building unsuitable. The new location was built in 1867, originally the residence of Martin Hanson, who along with several other positions was Brownsville's building inspector. The building and grounds, owned by Judge Carlos Cascos have been meticulously restored and/or preserved. The CASA staff seem more than pleased to be operating out of such a beautiful compound.

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