By Taylor Boyd
With an increase in services for Patrick County, Focus on Youth CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) plans to seek funding from the county in the upcoming fiscal year.
The agency is a volunteer organization that advocates for children and their best interests throughout the 21st Judicial District, which includes Patrick and Henry Counties as well as the City of Martinsville.
Kerry Walker, executive director of the agency, said judges assign cases to the agency in the event of child abuse or neglect.
“We just do what the judge can’t do. We’re kind of the eyes and ears for the judge. If the child spends half the time with the mother and half of the time with the father, we go to both of those houses. We make sure that everything that the child needs is at the house, that they have a bed to sleep in. We make sure that there’s adequate food and things there for them,” she said.
CASA volunteers can also talk to school teachers, guidance counselors, and medical personnel. Once all the information is collected, Walker said volunteers write reports and submit the findings to the judge.
The judge then uses information in the report “to help them make the decision about the future of that child,” she said.
While not social workers, the agency has the same goal of permanently placing children into a situation that’s most beneficial to the child.
Additionally, the caseload is lighter. For instance, Walker said one CASA volunteers can only carry two cases at a time, compared to “some of the social workers,” which could have 25 or 30 cases.
“So, we have more time. We can dig a little bit deeper on each case simply because of the time factor. If you’re serving 30 kids and I’m serving two, obviously I’m going to have more time to gather more information. We often work alongside the social worker in the case and we share information with them,” she said.
CASA volunteers also stay with the children throughout the entire case, while social workers often change.
“They might have two or three people from Social Services who work with them, but the CASA worker is the one constant person throughout the whole case, which really enables us to build a personal relationship with these children. We’re able to gain their trust, and they oftentimes tell us things they will not tell other people,” Walker said.
She added that CASA volunteers are court-appointed and officers of the court.
While the organization currently has 26 volunteers, Walker said it needs more.
“We need more volunteers. The only requirement is that you’re just willing to be a volunteer. There’s no educational requirement or anything like that, and we train the volunteers,” she said.
Walker said the total training takes about 30 hours and includes in-office and field work.
“We take the volunteers with us on home visits. We take them to court to just kind of subject them to everything they will be doing once they get sworn in by the court,” she said.
Volunteers must also be at least 21-years-old and have a valid driver’s license.
In fiscal year 2025, Walker said CASA served 98 children in Henry County, 32 in Martinsville, and seven in Patrick County.
In fiscal year 2021, the first Walker was with the organization, it served two children from Patrick County.
“We have just finished the first two quarters of fiscal year ‘26, which for us ended December 31, and we served seven kids in that six months” from Patrick County, “which is how many we served the whole year before.
“From ‘21 to ‘25 we had a 250 percent increase of the number of kids we served from Patrick County, and from ‘24 to ‘25 we had a 75 percent increase. So our numbers are really picking up,” she said.
At the end of fiscal year 2024, Walker said the state estimated it costs $2,830 per child for an advocate.
“That includes staff time, all the supplies that are needed, such as office supplies. The only way our volunteers are compensated is we compensate them for their mileage,” Walker said. Each child assigned by the court “costs us on average $2,800 to serve that child,” she said.
When CASA serves seven or 10 kids from a locality, Walker said it’s hard to not ask it for funding.
Walker said she’s also increased the amount of funding she’s requesting from Henry County and Martinsville, because their numbers have also increased.
As of mid-February, the organization has 17 active cases in Henry County, seven in Martinsville, and five in Patrick County.
In addition to local funding, CASA receives federal and state funding, some from the United Way, and individual donations.
“The other ways I get funding is we do fundraising events. I do a letter campaign every year and I am constantly looking for other grant opportunities,” she said.
The organization’s total budget last year was $132,000.
“We served 137 children. So if you take that 137 children and multiply it by the $2,830 that the state tells me it costs for me to serve a child, that’s almost $388,000. We did that with $132,000,” she said.
While she was able to compensate volunteers for mileage, Walker said it’s getting harder to do that as costs increase.
The dramatic increase in caseloads and prices prompted Walker to introduce herself and the program to the Patrick County Board of Supervisors in February.
“I get funding from Henry County and I get funding from the City of Martinsville. We have never received funding from Patrick County, though we have always served, and have to serve Patrick County, because they are in our jurisdiction. The previous director, I guess, never reached out to receive funding,” she said.
Walker will ask the county for $5,000, “which isn’t the $2,800 per child, but we hadn’t received money from them before. I know everybody’s costs for doing business is going up and I know that all of the localities that we service have other organizations that they’ve having to give money to. I try not to be greedy and I really do try to not take advantage of anybody, but all the while continue to get what we need to service these kids,” she said.
For more information about CASA or to potentially volunteer or donate, go to www.foycasamhc.org or call (276) 403-5691 or (276) 340-6114.
