With over 30,000 youth in the foster care system annually, Los Angeles County has an urgent need for advocates to ensure that its cases receive necessary help with education, mental and physical wellbeing, and safe and stable placement.
Children in L.A. County’s foster care system have a passionate booster in Charity Chandler-Cole. As the new chief executive officer of CASA of Los Angeles, she is fully committed to being a champion for youth and recruiting others to join the cause.
CASA started their first program in 1978 under the leadership of Judge Peter Giannini, who secured a four-year federal start-up grant. The program, then known as the Child Advocates Office, was under the guidance of Presiding Judge of Juvenile Court, Richard “Skip” Byrne and Supervising Judge Paul Boland. In 1983, Friends of Child Advocates, now CASA of Los Angeles, founded by Jacqueline Dolan, organized a public/private partnership to increase awareness and raise money for the recruitment, training and support of volunteer advocates for abused and neglected children under the care of the Dependency Court, according to the organization’s website.
The Biddy Mason Foundation of First AME Church of Los Angeles has teamed up with the Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) to improve the lives of thousands of abused and neglected children in Los Angeles County foster care. The relationship, initiated by FAME member Samuel Herod, allows CASA to hold informational meetings on the well-known and centrally located campus. FAME’s location as well as its long history of social involvement, attracts many people in South Angeles to attend and learn more about CASA. According to its website, CASA “volunteers are appointed by judges to watch over and advocate for abused