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Capital Area CASA Association broke ground on May
14 for its new office building at the corner of Louisiana Avenue and
Maximillian Street. Donors, volunteers and supporters celebrated the
event with staff. The nonprofit organization, which trains and
supervises community volunteers to advocate for the timely placement of
abused children in safe, permanent homes, concludes a two-year-long
capital campaign by laying the foundation for the new building.
“The new office will foster more productivity, making the organization
better able to serve abused children in East Baton Rouge Parish,” says
Liz Betz, executive director.
When the CASA program began in Baton Rouge, one staff person and 12
volunteers served 22 children. The program has enjoyed steady growth,
recruiting more than 700 volunteers to provide a voice for more than
1,400 children since 1992. The program currently has 11 full-time staff
members and approximately 120 active volunteers. With this growth, the
program has encountered space restraints in its current facility on St.
Joseph Street. Offices are shared by two or three staff members,
offering no privacy for sensitive or confidential case matters.
The new building will offer a more appropriate space for the program’s
functions, and CASA will also be able to accommodate larger training
classes for new volunteers. Because CASA will be able to open training
to more people, the program will be able to prepare more volunteers to
serve the hundreds of abused children in our community.
To learn more about CASA, call 225-379-8598 or visit
www.casabr.org |
