CASA Lays Out Goals For 2026 At Annual Meeting

Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) of Kosciusko County has several goals for 2026.
One is volunteer growth.
“We are our people. Without our volunteers, there is no CASA program. We must and will grow our pool of volunteers to ensure that we can continue to meet the growing need for our services, as well as ensure our staff can support those volunteers and not be overwhelmed by working cases as a CASA as well,” CASA Executive Director Erin Rowland Jones said in her director’s report at CASA’s annual meeting Friday.
Another goal is to do a better job with community engagement.
“We want to be engaged with the community. We want to speak to more people about what we do. We want everyone to know who CASA is, what exactly do we do and what is our impact to the community,” she said.
A third goal is to continue looking at how CASA can one day be financially sustainable.
Rowland Jones stated, “We are financially a very sound organization. We have come in under budget every single year that I have been the director. ... We are very cautious and conservative with our dollars, yet we are very creative in finding ways to ensure that our dollars are being used well and making money for us.”
CASA has a great finance committee that is always looking at ways to diversify the organization’s funding, she said, and they do a good job of ensuring that as CASA grows that the funds are there to sustain that growth.
A challenge CASA will face this year is a sizeable cut in funds received from the federal Victims Of Crime Act (VOCA) grant.
“Two years ago when we applied for that, we knew that our funding was going to be cut by 15%, and it was. This is a grant that we have gotten for many, many years. We were advised, as its application process now for the 2026-28 grant, that our funding will be cut 40% across the board for anybody getting VOCA grant funds,” Rowland Jones said.
In Indiana, most CASA programs do receive funding from the VOCA grant.
“Why is that grant important? Most grants do not always wants to support operational expenses, meaning wages. VOCA is a grant that will allow us to use that money toward the wages of our staff,” she said. “So as we continue into 2026, we will continue to be fiscally responsible and conservative, while also relying on this wonderful community who continues to step up and support us every year.”
Approximately 70-80% of CASA of Kosciusko’s income is from its fundraising event and donors.
“What does that mean? It’s from you. It’s from our community. You are our main supporter. We don’t have to worry that our doors are going to close because we’re getting everything through VOCA. While that will be a hit, we know that we can rely on everyone in this room and our community to continue to support us,” she said.
“Our vision is very clear: We want to serve more children with more volunteers. Support our staff and support them well. And continue to be good stewards of our dollars while continuing to work toward financial self-sufficiency, all while continuing to support volunteers and children. And, honestly? The future looks so bright, we might need shades,” Rowland Jones said.
When a child is safe and their voice is heard, and when their future becomes possible, “that’s a brightness worth protecting,” she stated.
Earlier in her comments, Rowland Jones reflected back on 2025.
“What made it all possible and our impact was people. We served 216 children, which was an increase of 14% from the year prior. We had 53 active CASA volunteers, meaning they actively had a case in which they were advocating for a child. And we also started to focus on serving children that weren’t in the child welfare system, per se, but vulnerable children in family law cases where there might be some safety concerns. Maybe not enough for the Department of Child Services to get involved, but they had some needs,” she said.
With a large grant CASA received from the Lilly Foundation in 2024 and an increase in financial support from the community, she said they hired a new position - Staff Advocate Specialist Amanda Dines - who started at the very end of 2024.
“So now that we’re advocating for these other children, it has allowed us to get into the prevention field. When we work on those Child In Need of Service (CHINS) cases, those are instances where the children have already been abused and neglected. And we come in, we advocate for them, we become a caring person in their life. We’re consistent. We make sure their needs are met, and that we’re advocating for things they may need to be safe and find a permanent home,” she said.
There’s a lot of children that are still vulnerable and have issues that need to be addressed.
“So this is our way to get preventative,” Rowland Jones, pointing out that three of the county judges were present at the annual meeting. “I can tell you all of them at the table have appointed us in family law cases, and we continue to want to grow in that realm.”
Since Dines started at the end of 2024, Rowland Jones said CASA has seen a 60% increase in the number of children CASA serves through the family court.
“We think that’s really amazing and a way we can grow our program,” she stated.
Due to two very large donors both in 2024 and 2025, who wanted CASA to focus on growing their employees and investing in those employees, Rowland Jones said they have grown their staff. They also have taken steps to ensure their staff have wages comparable to their peers in the industry, as well as have opportunities for professional growth.
“Children had a dedicated CASA advocate with them throughout the duration of their case 97% of the time,” she said. “What does that mean? We work very hard to talk to our volunteers as we’re recruiting them, and when they are volunteers, to ensure that they can be involved with a case from beginning to end. The children we serve don’t always have positive, caring adults in their lives.”
Research studies say one positive, caring consistent adult in a child’s life can give them more resilience and hope, she pointed out.
“There’s a whole bevy of things that someone just caring for these children can provide, and that’s something that we can provide,” she said. “In their lives, they may have switched schools many times, especially if they’re part of the child welfare system. They will have several family case managers, typically. Providers will come and go. So to have one of the CASAs, who is consistently there and caring for them, and they can count on, seeing them every 30 days, is huge for that child. And it’s also huge for the history of that case - there is someone who knows everything from beginning to end.”
She recognized the CASA volunteers, the judges, donors and supporters, her staff and the CASA board for all that they do.
CASA also has two advocacy specialists whose job is to support the volunteers - Laurie Carlin and Jerika Fair.
The new position of operations specialist was opened this year and is Kris Woodard.
The recruitment and training manager position was revamped and is now Taylor Myers, who started about two weeks ago.
“We work as a team with each and every person. None of us does anything that we wouldn’t be willing to do, and we always help out if anyone else needs a helping hand. And we don’t succeed because of one person or one role. We succeed because of the entire staff, the board, our volunteers and the community,” Rowland Jones stated.