At 17, Maria* just wanted to go home. Lisa Gilliland helped her do that. Gilliland and Maria walk around Massachusetts St., shopping, filling out job applications and talking. Actually, Maria does most of the talking. As they walk they eat ice cream and Gilliland listens intently as this determined, red-headed, young woman talks about her hopes for the future.

At the beginning of her case, which started in September 2004, Gilliland, Baldwin City, graduate student, visited Maria every week as her case advanced toward finding the child a permanent home.

Normally, a CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate) volunteer spends time with their CASA child to find out what he or she needs and wants. In Gilliland’s case, Maria—at age 17—knew what she wanted.

“She let’s everyone know what she wants,” Gilliland says. “I feel like my role is to be more of a friend and someone she can talk to. I don’t have to do a lot. She just goes for it.”

So when Maria said she wanted to go home, Gilliland relayed the message and the social worker took over. Maria went from living in a foster home to supervised home visits to overnight visits and now she permanently lives at home.

CASA is a national program of trained volunteers who spend time with neglected or abused children and represent their interests in court in order to speak in their best interest to an appointed judge. The volunteers monitor their CASA child’s cases and work one-on-one with the children to make the best recommendations for them. Volunteers gather information from a child’s family, social workers and therapists to give the judge an objective perspective on the needs of the child.

CASA began in 1977 after a Seattle judge wanted more information about children’s cases in order to make better-informed decisions about their future. He began training volunteers so they could answer questions in court on behalf of the children. The program was replicated across the country, and in 1982 the National Court Appointed Special Advocate Association was formed.

In 2004, Douglas County CASA advocated for 91 children with 70 volunteers. The children’s ages range from a few months to 21 years old. Nationally, there are 900 CASA programs and 53,000 CASA volunteers.

If a child needs braces, a social worker does the paperwork and the foster family takes the child to get them braces. But it’s the CASA volunteer to say the child needs braces, says Carolyn Johnson, Douglas County CASA volunteer supervisor and University of Kansas political science lecturer.

Johnson started volunteering in May 2003. She says she realizes that many people are scared about what volunteering involves, but once you are matched with a child it is an incredibly rewarding experience.

Johnson has worked on the same case since she became a volunteer and has watched as Brett*, her teenage CASA child, has overcome his parents divorcing, sexual abuse and beatings from his stepfather that left him with permanent brain damage. He has been in state custody — foster care and institutions — for 12 years and has no possibility of returning home.

Johnson advocated moving him from a behavior disorder classroom to a regular classroom, arguing that his behavior feeds off the behavior around him. She was right, and he has excelled. He won first and second place at his school’s job Olympics and he brought home his first report card with all A’s. Johnson goes to his school meetings, court dates and talks with his foster parents weekly. The two like to go fishing together because it is calming. But Johnson admits she lets him do the fishing because she doesn’t have a license and because she doesn’t like to touch worms.

CASA volunteers don’t have to have special skills, but they should have an interest in children, says Kerry Gaines, executive director of Douglas County CASA. The volunteers should be able to give two to three hours to their child each week. Gaines says strong social and communication skills are also important because the volunteer must talk with many different people and also communicate with the judge on behalf of the child. CASA volunteers must complete 30 hours of training before they are offered a case. The training teaches volunteers communication and interviewing techniques as well as a background in abuse, neglect and many other topics that are relevant to CASA cases. Volunteers must be able to commit for one year because it is important to keep the same volunteer to a case to provide the child with stability. After the volunteers have graduated from training, the CASA staff decides which case they will offer to which volunteer. Gaines says the matching is a group effort, where the CASA staff members discuss the strengths and possible weaknesses of the volunteer and decide which case is the best fit.

“The ultimate goal is to find a permanent loving home for the kids,” Gaines says. “The volunteers feel like they get more out of it than they put in. They gain so much knowing they made a different in a child’s life.”

Anne Murray, CASA volunteer and law student graduate, has been volunteering for two years and found CASA to be good way for her to blend her volunteer work with law school. Murray says CASA has been an educational experience because now she realizes the adversity that some children have to grow up with.

Erica*, Murray’s teenage CASA child, likes to take Murray to play pool. Erica cleans the table, hitting amazing shots off the sides of the table and giggles at Murray when she misses the cue ball. “She’s always very encouraging about how I just need more practice,” Murray says. “I’m learning a lot from her.”

After 9/11, Kris Gonzales says she needed to feel close to the kids in her community in order to support them. She became a CASA volunteer in King County, Seattle, Wa., in 2002 and then became a resource developer for the National CASA Association where she has the flexibility to continue her volunteer schedule and make her CASA cases a priority.

One challenging aspect of volunteering is that a volunteer can never really understand what the child is going through, Gonzales says, but volunteers are a support for the kids, even if they don’t always have the answers. Gonzales was removed from her home at a young age and understands the difficulties of living in an addictive home. “I come from a background that can relate to these kids,” Gonzales says. “I have that connection. The children at the end of the day want safe, happy parents.”

Gonzales is currently working on three active cases, one of which is a native child. There is an entirely different system for native children, so she is learning about tribal jurisdictions.

Gonzales continues to volunteer her time to CASA because of one of her first cases, which involved two sisters: an 8-month-old and her newborn sister who weighed two pounds at birth because she was drug-affected. After working on their case for more than a year, the sisters were kept together and now live with their aunt. “Through CASA influence, there was a significant impact on the lives of those sisters. That’s why I do it,” Gonzales says, “to bring those sisters together.”

For the life of 5-year-old Thomas*, Kyra Johnson, Leawood senior, has become a companion and friend. Thomas is too young to really understand what she does, but she knows he enjoys her visits. Thomas, a darling average-sized 5-year-old, smiles at her as the two of them paint with watercolors, put on puppet shows and play board games.

Johnson attends his court hearings, citizen review board hearings and has regular contact with his foster parents and social worker.

CASA programs receive funding support from grants and fundraising. Douglas County CASA’s annual fundraiser is called Casa 4 CASA, where one local architect builds a child’s playhouse— some valued at $10,000 to $15,000 — and then community members purchase tickets by donation to have a chance to win the playhouse. This fundraiser usually raises between $12,000 and $15,000.

Kappa Alpha Theta, 1433 Tennessee St., has been supporting CASA—its national philanthropy—since 1989.

“It means helping out children in need and I get great satisfaction from that,” says Nicole Hall, Kappa Alpha Theta president and San Antonio, senior.

Each spring, Kappa Alpha Theta hosts May Day Sundaes, a philanthropic event where a small fee covers ice cream, a live band, games, a magic show and prize drawings. May Day Sundaes usually raises around $1,000 for CASA. Every fall, the sorority hosts their annual Sun Run 5K; raising anywhere from $3,000 to $5,000 to support CASA.