Pulaski County’s Court Appointed Special Advocates are hoping to get grant funding to increase awareness of the program. CASAs are trained volunteers who help guide abused and neglected kids through the court system.
Pulaski County CASA Program Director Sara Kroft told the county commissioners last week that the state GAL/CASA office is offering up to $11,000 to each local program, to be used specifically for advertising and public relations. “The CASA program does not have a website right now,” Kroft said, “so the state office suggested strongly that part of that money be used for a website.”
She added that the state office has various materials ready for local programs to use to buy advertising. “So I won’t be doing any work, as far as pulling together the advertisements,” Kroft explained. “I’ll just be submitting them to newspapers, the theater. The Panhandle Pathway has a billboard that I’d like to use out there.”
Circuit Court Judge Mary Welker said the program could use more volunteers. “We have CASAs that are required to be appointed for certain cases,” Welker explained. “And we see the same CASAs over and over, and that’s great because they’re really good people. But we’re stretching them awfully thin, and so this would help us get more CASAs, get them trained, because it takes quite a bit to train a CASA.”
The commissioners unanimously agreed to let Kroft apply for the grant.
