Kids in Benton County’s court system just lost their voice.
CASA Voices for Children, the nonprofit that has staffed and trained volunteer advocates for abused and neglected children in Benton County for years, is done. The Oregon CASA Network — the 15-member statewide board that oversees every local Court Appointed Special Advocate program in the state — voted July 6 to terminate its contract with the organization, according to network executive director Stephanie Brown. That vote means the Voices for Children can no longer operate as a CASA program in Benton County, full stop.
It’s the kind of ending that was, in hindsight, telegraphed for months. Back in November, the Corvallis Advocate reported that the local CASA Voices for Children office was staring down a $20,000 shortfall and warning it might have to scale back or suspend services altogether, after federal CASA funding got zeroed out and state support shrank. Executive Director Kari Pinard put out the alarm then, saying the organization couldn’t keep standing beside the kids who need it without a serious infusion of community support, and the group leaned on a GoFundMe and its usual holiday fundraisers to try to close the gap.
Money trouble, it turns out, wasn’t the only problem. Voices for Children had gone years without filing the audits Oregon law requires of CASA programs, the Lincoln Chronicle reported last month. That failure pushed Oregon CASA Network to act; the board set a June 30 deadline for the group to either produce a completed audit or show real progress toward one.
Pinard told the Chronicle at the time she’d started pulling audit materials together and planned to request an extension.
The extension request never came. Brown said no audit, no ask for more time, and no evidence of progress showed up by the deadline. She said the board weighed that silence alongside the organization’s spotty communication and its failure to follow through on a membership support plan put in place after the program was suspended back in March — and concluded permanent termination was the only option.
Linn CASA to takeover in Benton County
So what happens to Benton County’s kids now? CASA of Linn County is stepping in to keep volunteer advocates working in Benton County while a longer-term plan comes together. Brown said that handoff is meant to stick — Linn County’s involvement in Benton County isn’t a stopgap, it’s the plan.
Lincoln County, which Voices for Children also served, is losing its CASA program too. There, the path forward is murkier: CASA of Yamhill County will provide interim support while Oregon CASA Network figures out whether Lincoln County ends up under Yamhill’s wing long-term or gets its own independent program. Brown said there’s local appetite in Lincoln County for going independent, and the network is hoping to land on a direction by October — though standing up a brand-new nonprofit, if that’s the call, could take up to six months.
Brown said the network’s focus for both counties is keeping disruption to a minimum for kids already in the system, so they keep getting consistent advocacy while things get sorted out.
Anyone with questions about what comes next can reach Brown directly at sbrown@oregoncasanetwork.org.
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