Our Role

History of the CASA Movement

In 1977, a Seattle Superior Court Judge named David Soukup was concerned about trying to make decisions on behalf of abused and neglected children without enough information. He conceived the idea of appointing community volunteers to speak up for the best interests of these children in court. He made a request for volunteers; 50 citizens responded, and that was the start of the CASA movement.

Last year, nearly 60,000 CASA volunteers served more than 240,000 abused and neglected children through 954 program offices. CASA volunteers have helped more than two million abused children since the first program was established in 1977.

CASA Of River Region Serves Jefferson, Oldham, Henry, Trimble, Shelby And Spencer Counties

Locally, CASA of River Region was organized in January 1985 through the joint efforts of the National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW)/Louisville Section, the Jefferson District Court and the Jefferson County Child Abuse Authority (JCCAA).

CASA was developed in Jefferson County following a community-wide assessment inspired by a dramatic increase in the incidence of child abuse and neglect in Kentucky. The assessment uncovered a need for additional services for dependent children as well as a need for volunteer advocates to act on behalf of children involved in Family Court. CASA of River Region was the first in Kentucky and is one of the over 900 CASA programs in 50 states nationwide.

CASA of Henry, Oldham and Trimble Counties was implemented in April 2007 from the idea that the Jefferson County program would expand into some of the surrounding counties. Several volunteers from the counties were already involved with Jefferson and Oldham cases and ideas were tossed around for a year before the program began. Volunteers Elizabeth Senn-Alvey, Debbie Harrod, Stephanie Wenther, Mary Jo Robb, Diane Doll, Ron Nash, and Sherri Caldwell, along with Court Administrator, Claudia Brewer, Cabinet Supervisor Heather Simpson and Judge Timothy Feeley were the ground breaking team leaders. In April of 2007 Sherri Caldwell was hired as the new Coordinator of Volunteer Advocates. At that time there were seven CASA volunteers. We have now grown to 36 volunteers and over 200 children being served in the tri-county area.