Annual Report

Rappahannock Area CASA
2024-25 Annual Report &
Program Accomplishments

Rappahannock Area CASA is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to advocating for abused and neglected children in the Fredericksburg area. Our program provides independent, high-quality advocacy to vulnerable children involved in court cases due to parental abuse or neglect. Most children we serve are in foster care, though some live at home under child protective orders or Child In Need Of Services petitions. Judges appoint CASA to give voice to the children’s needs.

In 2024-25:

• Rappahannock Area CASA advocated for 117 children.
• 37 volunteer advocates donated 4,101 hours of service.
• CASA volunteers submitted 77 written reports to local judges, who incorporated the vast majority of CASA’s written recommendations into their court orders.

The children our volunteers worked diligently to serve in 2024-25 included:

• A 12-year-old who suffered physical abuse and was sent to work at a restaurant to help pay the family’s rent and utility bills
• Siblings who witnessed the drug overdose of both of their parents
• Multiple children who witnessed repeated incidents of domestic violence in their homes
• One child who was experiencing her third placement in foster care due to chronic neglect and drug abuse by her parents
• A dozen children who had previously been adopted out of foster care only to suffer abuse and neglect in their adoptive families

KEY OUTCOME MEASURES

In 2024-2025:

• CASA volunteers and/or staff attended 163 court hearings and submitted 77 CASA reports prior to court hearings. (Reports are required for many but not all hearings.)
• Judges considered 76% of CASA’s written recommendations and incorporated 96% of those considered into their court orders. Overall, judges incorporated 72% of CASA’s total recommendations into their court orders. (Some recommendations are made to highlight a concern and spur action by child welfare professionals but are not necessarily intended to trigger action by a judge.)
• 94% of foster children served by CASA were placed in safe, permanent homes when their cases closed in 2024-25. (We remained concerned about 2 young children who were returned home to a parent we did not believe was a safe caretaker)
• 55% of foster care cases involving CASA ended within the 17-month timeline (about 510 days) mandated by federal law. CASA’s foster care cases lasted an average of 409 days. (Court and procedural delays are among the factors that can stretch out some children’s cases.)
• CASA volunteers logged more than 14,000 “contacts,” or conversations with teachers, therapists, social workers, foster parents, parents and other service providers in the children’s lives to better understand the children’s needs and provide targeted advocacy.

In many ways in FY25, our efforts helped ensure that children’s best interests were served and that common sense prevailed – even when the system’s focus on laws and regulations threatened to overshadow what was plainly best and safest for kids. CASA’s voice mattered – for kids being brought to visits with parents they feared or children left in homes where they didn’t feel safe; for kids on the verge of returning to parents who couldn’t or wouldn’t protect them; for teens grappling with feelings of abandonment; and for families desperate to reunite and working hard to earn the chance.

In FY25, we feel confident our advocacy protected children and helped guide them to safe, permanent homes. We also feel positive about the concerted efforts we made to help foster teens prepare for adulthood – by completing written assessments of their life skills, assessing gaps in their knowledge, giving them a book on preparing for adulthood, and initiating conversations about topics such as how to get a job, how to handle money, how to access college and how to lead healthy lives.

The intervention CASA provides, in collaboration with social workers, Guardians ad litem and the court system, is crucial to increasing the likelihood that children suffering from atrociously adverse experiences can develop the resilience and coping skills needed to succeed in life. Child abusers are rarely held accountable by the criminal justice system. The civil court system in which CASA operates is often the only system holding child abusers accountable for their damaging actions.

 OUR VOLUNTEERS

Our volunteers include educators, lawyers, government employees, stay-at-home parents, counselors, grandparents, retired service members and others. Each person brings an impressive mix of compassion, intellect and life experience to their work, and each passed comprehensive background checks before serving a child.

To advocate for children, CASA volunteers: 1) investigate the children’s lives; 2) identify the children’s needs; 3) speak up for the children’s best interests through written recommendations to judges; and 4) communicate with Guardians ad litem and others to promote the children’s well-being for the duration of each case. CASA’s recommendations address the children’s physical safety as well as their emotional, educational, health and other needs.

In FY 2024-2025, 37 Rappahannock Area CASA volunteers spent 4,101 hours advocating for abused and neglected children in the Fredericksburg area. Most of the children CASA served were involved in court cases in Spotsylvania County and the city of Fredericksburg, while others were in Stafford County.

Nonprofit research organization Independent Sector estimates the value of a volunteer hour in Virginia at $34.42. Based on this rate, Rappahannock Area CASA volunteers provided $141,156 worth of valuable service to our community in 2024-25.

        VOLUNTEER & STAFF TRAINING 

In 2024-25, Rappahannock Area CASA continued its volunteer recruitment and training efforts by:

• Training nine new volunteers, who were sworn in by a judge after completing at least 32 hours of in-depth, pre-service training. All were quickly assigned to serve a child or a sibling group.
• Providing multiple opportunities for our volunteers to engage in continuing education. After their first year of service, CASA volunteers are required to participate in an extra 12 hours annually of ongoing training to maintain their certification. In 2024-25, our CASAs completed nearly 425 hours of ongoing education, including, attending workshops at the CASA office on how to find and understand court records, resolve conflict and approach cases with cultural competence; participating in webinars addressing topics such as racial equity in foster care, what trauma looks like in children and the impact of substance abuse on a family; and participating in mock scenarios, learning about new child welfare legislation, hearing from the state’s Children’s Ombudsman and participating in a Q&A with regional judges at the Court & Community Roles in the Safe Placement of Children conference, sponsored by the Fredericksburg Best Practice Court Team.

 BOARD OF DIRECTORS

The Rappahannock Area CASA Board of Directors provides fiscal oversight, strategic planning and fundraising for our organization. Board members during FY24 included:

• President Barbara Miller-Richards, former Fredericksburg School Board member and parish secretary at St. George’s Episcopal Church
• Vice President Teri Cortese-Fusaro, an attorney and former CASA volunteer
• Secretary/Treasurer Marie Fredrick, healthcare consultant at Ramshorn LLC and former CASA volunteer
• Nancy Pcsolyar, a nurse and retired office manager at Mary Washington Neurology
• Robert Rycroft, retired Professor of Economics at the University of Mary Washington
• Jacinta Topps, pediatrician at Fall Hill Pediatrics
• Shondella Murray, Human Resources Specialist at NLRB and former CASA volunteer
• Jane McDonald, retired director of the Rappahannock Area Community Services Board

Bobby Anderson, who served on Rappahannock CASA’s Board of Directors for nearly 15 years, passed away on May 25, 2025 at the age of 80. Before joining the board, Bobby served nearly four years as a volunteer CASA, logging more than 1,500 hours advocating for seven different children. In memory of Bobby, we have established the Bobby Dee Anderson Fund, which will support the printing of our #Adulting teen guide as well as the purchase of gift cards for the children we serve for birthdays and holidays.

Longtime board member and CASA volunteer Bobby Anderson

 

CASA CHILDREN

Rappahannock Area CASA serves children ages 0-21 from a variety of racial, ethnic, economic and other backgrounds. Demographic details about the 117 children we served in 2024-25 include:       

FINANCES

Rappahannock Area CASA continues to strive for diversified funding from numerous sources. During fiscal year 2024-25, here is where our funding came from – and how we spent it:

INCOME:

EXPENSES:

Note: CASA’s 2024-25 audit and financial statements have not yet been completed. Figures above are aligned with CASA’s QuickBooks accounting system’s Profit & Loss statement.