One local organization says it desperately needs your help with kids facing abuse and neglect.
There’s a shortage of court-appointed special advocates, also known as CASAs.
While CASA of Central Virginia helped almost 200 kids for fiscal year 2025, 135 kids are currently on the waitlist.
CASAs are trained volunteers appointed by judges assigned to kids facing abuse or neglect.
The group works with kids in foster care or kinship placements where they’re staying with someone they’re familiar with, like a teacher or relative.
We spoke with two volunteers, including one who has helped three kids.
“As a CASA volunteer, you’re not only building relationships with the children and the families, but you’re also tasked with helping them establish relationships in the greater community,” said Genevieve Weaver. “So, you’re really preventing future problems in their lives.”
“It makes you feel great,” Tamara Short, another volunteer, explained. “You think you’re doing something for someone else, but it gives me chills because it turns out the other way. You realize that they’re doing something for you in your heart.”
The organization says kids are 50 percent less likely to enter foster care and more likely to get into a permanent home quicker with these volunteers.
“Seeing the bond that they build with the kids, with the families and being able to successfully see that reunification process being matched,” said Jameisha Carter, a CASA of Central Virginia advocate manager for Lynchburg, Appomattox and Nelson. “It’s one of those things that’s a surreal feeling.”
“Hearing these children’s stories and these teens’ stories, you really would have no idea what they’ve been through, and I think it’s our goal as CASA to help their stories be told,” said Ainslee Doolan, a CASA of Central Virginia advocate manager for Bedford County.
CASA of Central Virginia serves Lynchburg, Amherst, Appomattox, Bedford, Campbell and Nelson counties.
The group is facing a waitlist in all of those areas. In Lynchburg, there are 77 kids on the waitlist. Bedford has 29.