About Us/Who We Are

CASA of Wells County Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) is a national association in the United States that supports and promotes court-appointed advocates for abused or neglected children. CASAs are volunteers from the community who complete training provided by the national and state organizations. We are appointed by the Wells County Circuit Court Judge, and our role is to gather information and make recommendations in the best interest of the child, keeping the child’s personal wishes in mind. In 2021, there were 4,020 active volunteers advocating for children involved in 23,290 CHINS cases in Indiana.

CASA of Wells County was awarded state and national memberships in 2020. Six volunteers were sworn in by Judge Kenton Kiracofe on December 17, 2020. Seven more volunteers were sworn in last April and again two more in October! We began taking new CHINS cases in January, 2021.
Our local CASA program recruits, trains, and supports CASA volunteers as advocates to get to know the abused or neglected children/teens and determine their needs. The CASA then recommends to the court what is in the child’s best interest. By presenting the best interests of abused and neglected children to the court, advocates help judges make better informed and more timely decisions about children so they can be returned home or placed in a safe and permanent home as quickly as possible. In addition to speaking for the child in court, CASA volunteers assist children in other ways to recover from the situations that led to them becoming a Child In Need of Services – providing encouragement and support to enable them to lead healthy, productive lives. Advocates serve as role models to children who often have no one else and develop meaningful relationships with their assigned children that have a lifelong impact on both the children and the volunteer.