SIDNEY -- When a child is involved in the court system, there is the possibility a judge will appoint a person to stand with the child during court, and be the child's support into the future.

PlainsWest CASA serves Cheyenne, Deuel and Kimball counties. It depends on fundraising and grants for much of its operating funds. PlainsWest CASA Director Krista Bruns met with the Cheyenne County Commissioners May 20 to present an update on the program. 

"Recently, I would say in the last couple of years, we've been able to grow our staff, so now we have two full-time positions, myself and the Volunteer Coordinator. And then we have two part-time staff, an admin and a trainer to teach parenting classes. This is new from the last time I spoke. This was a need that we felt was very important, especially right after COVID," Bruns said.

She said after COVID, they didn't have anybody teaching parenting classes. She said a lot of parents CASA served were court-ordered to take parenting classes. She said the trainer is trained to do five different classes. The classes are free to parents PlainsWest CASA serves, and to the community. She said of Nebraska's 91 counties, only 52 are covered by a CASA.

Bruns also said PlainsWest CASA is seeing a reduction in federal funding. 

"Right now, we are currently sitting at 20 volunteers. Last year, we served 56 children in Cheyenne County, and there are 56 children in foster care, and throughout that year we served 27 of them by 15 CASA volunteers that were from Cheyenne County. Like I said, we have currently 20 volunteers. They had 615 hours on their case. They made a little over 2,000 contacts with their child and they drove 3,311 miles," she said.

Bruns said most of the children are placed outside of Cheyenne County. She added PlainsWest CASA has started experiencing funding cuts through Federal grants. She said with some local fund-raising efforts, CASA fundraising and corporate support, they are about $7,000 short of covering the $20,000 loss.

The commissioners agreed to give $5,000 from the Youth Services line item in KENO funds.

About CASA: CASA volunteers are appointed by judges to watch over and advocate for abused and neglected children, to make sure they don’t get lost in the overburdened legal and social service system or languish in inappropriate group or foster homes. For children who’ve been abused or neglected, CASA means having a home instead of feeling lost, and being a priority instead of feeling invisible.

In 1977, a Seattle juvenile court judge concerned about making drastic decisions with insufficient information conceived the idea of citizen volunteers speaking up for the best interests of abused and neglected children in the courtroom. From that first program has grown a network of more than 955 CASA and guardian ad litem programs that are recruiting, training and supporting volunteers in 49 states.