Program Report Card for 2010

Thursday, November 18, 2010 - 18:20 - www.voicesforkidsofsv.org

written by: Joyelle Saunders, Executive Director

When Judge William Moore and a small core of concerned citizens started the CASA Program back in 2004, the goal was to provide a voice and hope to children in the 5^th Judicial District who were going through the court system as a result of suffering abuse and/or neglect. After enduring some growing pains, we are today much closer to that goal by expanding our service area to include the City of Franklin and Southampton County, as well as Isle of Wight County. While this is a tremendous accomplishment, my personal commitment to the Voice for Kids CASA Program and the community we serve, since arriving in 2007, is to ensure the quality of our operations as well as the child advocacy services we provide.

In 2009, Voices for Kids CASA underwent both a state CASA audit conducted by the Department of Criminal Justice Services and a national CASA audit conducted by the National CASA Association. Both examined the organizational strength and programmatic compliance of the Program. Thanks to the hard work of the volunteers, the staff and the Board of Directors, Voices for Kids CASA passed both audits with near perfect scores. Since then, we have continued to strive for excellence in the execution of our program.

Now that the end of the 2010 fiscal year has passed, it is time to grade the Program on our performance. During the year, Voices for Kids CASA faced challenges, including the failing economy and the decrease in staff for a portion of the year. These factors impacted volunteer recruitment and supervision, but the Program was still able to maintain quality service while remaining fiscally sound.

The number of volunteers held about steady with 33 this year compared to last fiscal year (34 volunteers in 2009) GRADE = B

The volunteers served a total of 2,819 hours over the last fiscal year. This is equivalent to each volunteer working about 11 consecutive 8 hour days. GRADE = B+

The number of children served also held near steady at 33 compared to the previous year (32 children served in 2009). GRADE = B

When CASA Volunteers write and submit their court reports to the judge, they are able to include recommendations for services needed by the child and the family. Of the almost 250 recommendations made last fiscal year, 96% were accepted and implemented by the judge. GRADE = A+

Volunteers make their service recommendations based on needs that they observe during their monitoring of a child’s case. During the year 62% of the children’s needs identified by the program had services that were implemented to meet those needs. Since the goal of the Program is to have at least 85% of the needs with a matching service, this measure needs to be improved by training volunteers how to better recognize the needs and research available community resources. GRADE = C

The number of identified family needs with matching implemented services is 50%. The goal of the Program is to have 85% of the needs with a matching implanted service. This percentage is heavily affected by the nature of each case. In some cases, though a parent or other family member may have a need identified by the Program, it may not be in the best interest for that child to be placed with the family member, or the family member may not want to cooperate with services. Therefore, the court may not order services for that family member. GRADE = B

Overall: The Program had to overcome several challenges this year. The economic downturn caused us to postpone the hiring of another employee to help recruit and supervise volunteers. The extended period of time without having full staff also impacted volunteer management. This in turn limited the number of volunteers the program was able to recruit, which limited the number of children the Program could serve. In spite of these challenges, the Program was still able to deliver quality advocacy while operating under budget. The Program still has room for improvement as we seek to better advocate for services needed by the children and families that we serve. OVERALL GRADE = B