Advocacy Starts with
a Spark
Children in foster care deserve our support to help them thrive. Voices for Children (VFC) recruits, trains, and supports Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) volunteers who advocate for these children in court, school, and community settings, ensuring their needs are met and their voices heard. CASA volunteers are the spark that ignites change and hope in the lives of children in foster care.
The childhood of a youth in foster care can be marked by trauma, disruption, and loss. A CASA represents a stable, trusted relationship with an adult who sparks hope during the darkest of times in their life. What seems like an insignificant action to most people — listening to concerns, meeting for a meal, and offering trust, safety, and respect — is paramount for the children we serve because these actions let them know they matter. A CASA volunteer’s dedicated advocacy, support, and mere presence can be a constant light that can make a world of difference in a child’s life and lead them toward a more hopeful future.
Read the full report and be inspired by our CASA volunteers and how they spark hope in the lives of some of our community’s most vulnerable young people.
“To give a child a CASA volunteer is to give them a voice. To give them a voice is to give them hope, and to give them hope is to give them the world.”
– PAMELA, A FORMER YOUTH IN FOSTER CARE
Your Support Gives Children a Voice
This annual report allows us to illustrate how you have nurtured the lives of children and youth in our community through your support of Voices for Children.
When children experience abuse or neglect and it is unsafe for them to remain in their homes, they enter foster care. Each child and family is assigned to a juvenile court judge who makes all of the decisions about what happens next. In California and around the country, judges appoint exceptional community volunteers to advocate for the child’s best interests and to get to know the child in a holistic way. These volunteers are called Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASAs).
In San Diego and Riverside Counties, Voices for Children is the only organization authorized by the local courts to recruit, train, and support CASA volunteers. Children experiencing the complex child welfare system rely on Voices for Children to ensure they will have their very own CASA volunteer when they need one.
OUR IMPACT IN FY2023-2024
A Guiding Light in a Child’s Life
For decades, we have been dedicated to championing the rights and well-being of children navigating the complexities of the foster care system. Through both challenging and transformative times, our unwavering mission remains clear: to ensure every child has access to a caring and committed Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) who needs one.
Our CASA program provides invaluable support to vulnerable youth, empowering them to find their voices. Each trained CASA volunteer serves as a beacon of hope, offering stability and consistency. They provide critical support through advocacy, meeting essential needs, and creating positive experiences.
The work of CASA volunteers is vital in creating a world where every child feels valued and supported. For many children, their CASA symbolizes hope — a light in the darkness. We hope you see the joy that comes from building lasting connections, creating cherished memories, and witnessing the strength of the children we serve.
Stories from Our Program
Serving our region's youth in foster care
Service in San Diego County
Voices for Children (VFC) is honored to have advocated on behalf of 1,729 youth in San Diego County foster care this year. As leaders within San Diego County’s child welfare system, we continued amplifying our capacity to streamline access and resources for our CASA volunteers to improve how they can meet the physical, social, and emotional needs of the children they advocate for.
What sets us apart is our innovative model of child advocacy that integrates both CASA volunteers and case liaisons, a strategy rarely seen in CASA programs. This holistic approach to our work, along with our comprehensive programmatic organizational structure, allows us to harness the power of teamwork and serve every child who needs us as soon as possible.
In this report, we recognize the special light and the motivation our dedicated CASAs have sparked in the lives of the most vulnerable children in San Diego County.
Service in Riverside County
During FY23-24, Voices for Children (VFC) CASA volunteers and staff advocated on behalf of 586 children in Riverside County through our CASA program. The Riverside County CASA program continues to grow as it approaches its tenth anniversary of serving children in foster care in Riverside County.
When VFC was asked to recruit and train volunteer Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASAs) in Riverside County in 2015, we not only rebuilt a CASA program but enlightened the community one conversation at a time to establish trust, and developed the program’s public image from the ground up. Now, we are a trusted organization that transforms the lives of children in foster care by providing them with trained, volunteer CASAs.
In this report, you will read about these compassionate individuals who step up in the most remarkable way by choosing to dedicate their time to children in foster care.
It’s essential to provide young boys in foster care the opportunity to lean on and learn from stable male role models. I encourage men to take action by offering a few hours a month to make a difference for boys living in foster care in our local community. The little time spent as a CASA may be all it takes to have a life-changing effect.”
– CASA Robert, Riverside County
Our Financials
During FY23-24, Voices for Children received generous financial support totaling $9,711,534. Because of you, we provided one-on-one advocacy to more than 2,300 children living in foster care across San Diego and Riverside Counties. Please read the full report to view our financial statements.
All of this is possible because of you — our CASA volunteers, our Board members, our donors, our community champions, and our steadfast friends. We are so grateful for the tremendous impact you have made in the lives of the children we serve.
