"the People's Paths!" Cherokee News Path - CN Contributes More Than $23K to CASA

(Pictured left to right) Sherrill Vaught, Delaware County CASA coordinator, Harley Buzzard, Cherokee Nation tribal councilor representing District 5, Wayne Shaw, CASA Board of Directors vice-president, Joe Grayson, Cherokee Nation deputy principal chief, Ed Hamilton, CASA Board of Directors president, Verna Brock, Ottawa County CASA coordinator, Curtis Snell, Cherokee Nation tribal councilor representing District 5.

TAHLEQUAH, Oklahoma - The Cherokee Nation recently contributed more than $23,000 to the 13th Judicial District Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA), Inc., a Grove-based non-profit that serves as a voice for children in court throughout Delaware and Ottawa counties.

“We are proud to provide support to CASA,” said Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chad Smith. “CASA volunteers are instrumental in serving as an independent voice for children struggling in the court system.”

Already serving more than 35 children throughout their service area, Delaware County CASA coordinator Sherrill Vaught says the support from Cherokee Nation will allow them to do that much more.

“It is so awesome to have Cherokee Nation support,” said Vaught. “With grants being cut and the economy downsizing, to have the Cherokee Nation support us just means we can go out and help that many more children. That is just phenomenal to us.”

The 13th Judicial District CASA organization is one of 26 CASA organizations located throughout Oklahoma. According to the CASA Web site,CASA is a unique concept for the juvenile court system that initially began in Seattle, Washington in 1977, as an experiment to involve community volunteers in sensitive and confidential matters of families. The volunteers, speaking as guardians for the children in court, brought significant information about the children to whom they were appointed that was free from agency biases, policies and procedures. The volunteers proved to be an effective way to help prevent inappropriate and unduly long foster care placements, and to provide the court with a perspective based solely on the child's best interest. As a result, courts in other states began adopting the idea and the CASA concept has become one of the fastest growing child advocacy movements in the country. CASA requires a significant number of hours of ongoing training for its volunteers to give them the knowledge they need to perform in their role.

“We do a lot of training for our volunteers, so some of the money will be used for that and some will be used for promotional materials to make the community aware of CASA and what it does,” said Vaught. “We can’t tell you how much we appreciate the Cherokee Nation.”