CASA Website

About the Program

Category: Information Technology (Best in Category)

Year: 2012

Each year, an increasing number of children become part of the court and children welfare systems through no fault of their own. To ease this process, CASA volunteers meet with the affected children. A CASA volunteer is a community member who acts as the voice of children in court. Founded in 1985 and established by legislative act in 1991, the CASA program of Maricopa County recruits, trains and supports hundreds of volunteers who have helped thousands of children to date. However, facing budget constraints and a shrinking volunteer base, Maricopa County needed to develop a low-cost program to recruit more volunteers. As a result of this dilemma, Maricopa County repurposed the CASA volunteer website. The focus moved from being a child‐centric website to a volunteer‐centric website. The current information found on the public website details not the plight of abused and neglected children but provides concrete and direct steps for getting involved and volunteering. The first major change was to provide a secure and easily navigated application that a prospective volunteer could fill out immediately. This eliminated the need for an application to be printed and mailed to the CASA office. The electronic application eliminated the need for a staff member to input data from a paper application into the program database. The probability for mistakes was dramatically reduced. Each application took approximately 30 minutes for a staff member to input. The program on average received 50 applications in a month. The website then generated an immediate email response so that the applicant could be assured that the process was moving forward. This eliminated staff time as well. In FY2011, volunteer hour/mileage documentation on the website has increased over 20% compared to FY2010. That increase generated into over $10,000 in total value hours donated “in kind” to the program.