Delivering the financial document to the City Council on April 20, the mayor indicated his top interests include addressing the homelessness crisis, investing in small businesses, upgrading opportunities for young people and improving the quality of life for many Angelenos by implementing a guaranteed basic income pilot program.
Laura Herrera, County Clerk project assistant, outlined the new system – Voting Solutions for All People or VSAP – during a community meeting hosted by First AME Church and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority on June 8. Explaining some of the changes, she noted that voters would no longer be limited to casting their ballots at an assigned polling place.
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.