Concerned over making decisions about abused and neglected children's lives without sufficient information, a Seattle judge conceived the idea of using trained community volunteers to speak for the best interests of these children in court. So successful was this Seattle program that soon judges across the country began utilizing citizen advocates. In 1990, the U.S. Congress encouraged the expansion of CASA with passage of the Victims of Child Abuse Act. Today more than 900 CASA programs are in operation, with 70,000 women and men serving as CASA volunteers. CASA is an acronym for Court Appointed Special Advocate. The United States Department of Justice has supported CASA since 1985 through its Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. In 1991 it named CASA an "Exemplary National Program in Juvenile Delinquency Prevention."
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