Annual Report

Rappahannock Area CASA
2025-26 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 a voice to the children’s needs.

In 2025-26:

• Rappahannock Area CASA advocated for 111 children.
• 32 volunteer advocates donated 3,491 hours of service.
• CASA volunteers submitted 60 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 2025-26 included:

• Newborns abandoned by their parents.
• Children living in cars with their families.
• Multiple children who witnessed repeat incidents of domestic violence between their caregivers.
• A large sibling group who never returned to school after the pandemic and were subject to multiple types of abuse behind closed doors.
• Several children who entered foster care after law enforcement discovered large amounts of drugs in their home within easy reach of the children.
  

  Runners lined up for the Downtown Mile for CASA fundraising race in September 2025.

KEY OUTCOME MEASURES

In 2025-2026:

• CASA volunteers and/or staff attended 200 court hearings and submitted 60 CASA reports prior to court hearings. (Reports are required for many but not all hearings.)
• Judges considered 70% of CASA’s written recommendations and incorporated 94% of those considered into their court orders. Overall, judges incorporated 66% 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.)
• 92% of foster children served by CASA were placed in safe, stable homes when their cases closed in 2025-26. (We remained concerned about a sibling group of 5 who were expected to return to parents we did not consider to be safe caretakers.)
• 78% 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 339 days. (Court and procedural delays are among the factors that can stretch out some children’s cases.)
• CASA volunteers logged 12,094 “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 FY26, 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 FY26, 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 2025-26, 32 Rappahannock Area CASA volunteers spent 3,491 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 $36.99. Based on this rate, Rappahannock Area CASA volunteers provided $129,132 worth of valuable service to our community in 2025-26.

        VOLUNTEER & STAFF TRAINING 

In 2025-2026, Rappahannock Area CASA continued its volunteer recruitment and training efforts by:

• Training seven new volunteers, who were sworn in by Judge Marcel Jones after completing at least 32 hours of in-depth, pre-service training.
• 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 2025-26, our veteran CASAs completed nearly 200 hours of ongoing education, including attending workshops at the CASA office on school-based advocacy for children, the best ways to gather and organize case notes and how to work challenging cases; participating in webinars and local conferences addressing topics such trauma and resilience, culturally responsive advocacy and the impact of prenatal drug exposure; and learning about new child welfare legislation and a planned regional mental health crisis receiving center at a conference sponsored by the Fredericksburg Best Practice Court Team.

In early 2026, we reluctantly said goodbye to Jill Payne, who retired after nearly 30 years with Rappahannock CASA, first as our director (1997-2013) and then as a case manager. It would be impossible to overstate her contributions to our program; her heart and soul are woven into the very fabric of who we are, and we miss her terribly!

 

 BOARD OF DIRECTORS

The Rappahannock Area CASA Board of Directors provides fiscal oversight, strategic planning and fundraising for our organization. Board members during FY26 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, former Human Resources Specialist at NLRB and former CASA volunteer
• Jane McDonald, retired director of the Rappahannock Area Community Services Board
• Kristin Marsh, a Professor of Sociology at the University of Mary Washington
• Kimberley Kinsley, a Professor of Business Law at the University of Mary Washington

CASA CHILDREN

Rappahannock CASA serves children ages 0-21 from a variety of racial, ethnic, economic and other backgrounds. Demographic details about the 111 children we served in 2025-26 include:

FINANCES

Rappahannock CASA continues to strive for diversified funding from numerous sources. During fiscal year 2025-26, here is where our funding came from – and how we spent it:

FY26 INCOME:

FY26 EXPENSES:

Note: CASA’s 2025-26 audit and financial statements have not yet been completed. Figures above are aligned with CASA’s QuickBooks accounting system’s Profit & Loss statement.