Serving children in Elbert, Franklin, Habersham, Hart, Madison, Oglethorpe, Rabun, and Stephens Counties.

The Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) program was created in 1977 to

ensure that children removed from their home due to neglect and abuse have an

advocate solely for them. A CASA worker is a trained community volunteer who

is appointed by a juvenile court judge to speak for the best interest of children

brought before the court because they have been deprived of proper care.

Each year over 460,000 children in the United States are thrust into court through no fault of their own.  They  might be victims of violence, psychological torment or sexual abuse.  Others have been neglected or even abandoned by their own

parents.  All of them are frightened and confused. 

Often these children also become victims of this country’s overburdened child

welfare system ¾ a complex legal network of lawyers, social workers and judges

who frequently are too overburdened to give thorough, detailed attention to each child who comes before them.  The consequences can be severe.

Northeast Georgia CASA is one of 47 CASA programs in Georgia. Our agency began to serve children involved in juvenile court deprivation cases in Rabun, Stephens and Habersham counties in June 2004 under the name of Mountain CASA.  Initially the program was under the umbrella of another nonprofit in our area, F.A.I.T.H. (Fight Abuse in the Home), but in July 2004 Mountain Circuit CASA became an independent 501c3 organization.  Mountain CASA expanded in 2009 to become Northeast Georgia CASA.

Since we began training volunteer CASAs we have served a little more than 200

children.  The majority of the children we serve are under the age of five.  Each situation that brings a child into “the system” is different.  Substance abuse by one or both parents is the number one type of deprivation that the children we serve have experienced.  Some of our children have medical issues and all have emotional healing that needs to take place.