Casa of Larimer County

The Court Appointed Special Advocate (Casa) program pairs trained volunteers with children who have experienced abuse or neglect. Casa volunteers monitor child well-being, advocates in Court for their best interests, and help older youth transition from foster care into adulthood through our Casa fostering futures program. In 2022, 203 Casa volunteers advocated for 315 children. Casa volunteers reported the wellbeing of 97% of these children as follows: over 87% of youth 14 and older were involved in transition support, 84% provided health advocacy, 67% provided educational advocacy and 77% provided permanency and safety advocacy. In january of 2022,the magistrate on dependency and neglect docket began referring every new case to the Casa program. The Casa program served 89% of new cases that were eligible for a Casa in 2022.

Family connections at harmony house program: this program provides supervised visitation and custody exchange services. Documentation from these services helps the Court determine whether it's safe for a child to begin unsupervised visitation, or return to the custody of their parent(s) or guardian(s). Families receive individualized supportive case management and can participate in parenting programs. Taking a holistic, family-centered approach, the family connections program has the opportunity to strengthen parenting skills and provide connections to community resources to support the family long after services at clc end. Combining these services makes a real impact on the rates of recurrence of child abuse and neglect in our community. In 2022, 190 children (452 total clients) benefited from 1,629 safe visits and exchanges. More than 90% of parents who completed 8 or more npp lessons demonstrating an increase in their adult adolescent parenting inventory (aapi) score. 100% of those parents felt more confident in their parenting skills. We continue to offer group npp classes, but participation has been limited. Trust based relational intervention (tbri) is being infused into programming and offerings will expand in 2023.

General support of Casa of Larimer County