CASA celebrates 25 years with new location

Christie Netherton, Messenger-Inquirer, Owensboro, Ky.
·3 min read

Jun. 22—The Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) of Ohio Valley recently celebrated its 25th year in Daviess County with its new location at 608 Frederica Street.

CASA of Ohio Valley is a nonprofit child advocacy program that helps provide trained court-appointed volunteers to advocate in the family court systems for abused and neglected children. Currently the organization serves both Daviess and McLean counties.

Executive Director Rosemary Conder said the organization's move from its former location on St. Ann Street to one of Owensboro's busiest streets helps make CASA more visible and accessible to the public.

"I think the most important feature is that we're accessible," Conder said. "We have wheelchair accessibility ... all of the staff is on one level; the public can actually access the building easier — it's on the bus transit route, but in general, we're a one-story location versus a two-story historic building, which really wasn't very accessible as far as people with disabilities."

Additionally, she said the new location provides a more fluid and flexible space for training, meetings and even hosting events.

Conder said the need to move was rooted in the progress of the CASA of Ohio Valley program throughout the last 25 years and the projected growth for the future.

The new location allows for that by giving the program more public visibility, she said.

"We have 50 or 60 children on a waiting list for more volunteers to be CASAs, so the more that we can create awareness and understanding of abuse and neglect and the role CASA plays in preventing that and helping these children be resilient from the trauma they experience ... the more awareness that people have about these issues," she said. "Being in this location kind of allows us to have more of a presence."

Conder said a potential move has been discussed by the CASA board of directors for around two years now, with planning taking about a year.

She said CASA's presence in the community for the last 25 years shows the need for the program and the support it has from the community.

"This is our 25th year in Daviess County, so it's a great anniversary celebration for us and it's really shown how sustainable the CASA model is and how much wonderful support that we've had over the years," she said. "What we've seen in growth is we have gone from having less than 10 volunteers to now we have more than 60, so I think that shows how much the community cares and needs to know more about the work that we do and the children we serve."

CASA currently serves 110 children throughout Daviess and McLean counties, according to Conder.

However, the program's expansion into McLean County is still new and Conder expects to begin serving more children in that area in the future.

"We just started our expansion," she said. "COVID kind of limited what we can do, so we're just serving a few families there right now, but that's one area of our expansion that we're really excited about."

For more information about CASA and how to become a volunteer, visit CASAOV.org.

Christie Netherton, cnetherton@messenger-inquirer.com, 270-691-7360