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Diana Woldt-Gorsich-Senior Advocacy Supervisor-Voices for Children: San Diego
Bio: I worked for an early intervention specialist for 13 years in school and private clinics in early intervention special education. In 2014, I started at Voices for Children as an advocacy supervisor. I supervise a caseload of CASAs, help train our new staff, and assist with our Children’s Activities program, which provides our CASAs and youth opportunities for special outings due to the generous donations of our community partner: such as the Zoo, Sea World, LEGOLAND, museums and aquariums as some examples.
Background of CASA/Voices for Children San Diego: In 1976, a juvenile court judge in Seattle felt he had insufficient information needed to make what would be a life changing decision on a case for a 3 year old girl who had suffered from abuse. After reflecting on how he could gather further information for future cases, he came up with the idea and model for what would eventually become the CASA (or court appointed special advocate program), to train volunteers to gather information for the juvenile court to represent the best interests of children in the foster care system.
Our San Diego program, Voices for Children, was founded in 1980, and expanded to include Riverside county in 2015. In both counties over the past year, Voices for Children assigned CASAs to almost 2000 youth in the foster system for more than 1300 dependent children. In addition, 483 San Diego children in foster care received support by a Voices for Children staff advocate, and 983 children who entered foster care in San Diego received a thorough needs assessment by Voices for Children staff, through our case liaison program, in which a Voices for Children staff member sits in every courtroom daily to hear all incoming dependency cases and start the process of evaluating how best Voices for Children can support that child. We are the only agency in San Diego authorized to have advocates in Court and Voices for Children, the largest CASA program in California, and one of the top three largest CASA programs nationally.
Our CASAs represent youth from birth all the way to young adults from ages 18-21 who enter the Extended Foster Care program. Voices for Children also assigns CASAs to youth involved in the juvenile justice system, which used to be referred to as the delinquency system. Thanks to a special grant, we are now able to assign CASAs to youth who have committed minor crimes or offenses and could benefit from the advocacy of a CASA.
https://www.voicesforchildren.org/
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