City of Marion provides funding for local CASA chapter

The city of Marion awarded Grant County’s Court Appointed Special Advocates twenty-thousand dollars on Friday morning, April 17.
“One thing that’s a big passion of mine is helping the youth any way that we can, and what they do is tremendous work,” Mayor Ronnald Morrell said.
Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) is a national nonprofit association offering representation to children in the court system, often working with judges to provide necessary information.
“As a best interest advocate, we are responsible to make sure the children’s needs and wants, as much as possible, are met while the family system is involved with the court,” Leslie Hendrix, the executive director of CASA, said.
Leading to the check were decisions made at the federal level.
“We’re facing a pretty significant cut over the next couple years financially,” Taylor Frank, secretary of CASA’s board, said.
CASA receives funding at the state level that is then matched by a program’s county. These funds are a fixed amount and distributed among Indiana’s 87 programs.
Victims of Crime Act (VOCA), a federal fund, opens new grant cycles to CASA every 24 months. VOCA provides a large sum of CASA’s funding, including salaries.
“Over the course of my 17 years, VOCA has continuously funded our program in different means,” Hendrix said.
Funding has gradually decreased, leading Grant County’s CASA to request fewer funds each application.
“This year when we received the application, we were told that federally 40% of the money coming into that funnel had been cut,” Hendrix said, “It doesn’t dictate that every program who gets funded will be cut by 40%, but that is a possibility.”
A cut of 40% would equate to a loss of one-hundred and eighty thousand dollars over two years.

Following the cuts to VOCA, Hendrix reached out to Morrell seeking assistance.
“Just to be completely honest, the Lord laid it on my heart like, okay, the county has to give us money, but we’ve never asked the city,” Hendrix said.
The city of Marion’s gift marks the first time an Indiana city has funded a CASA program.

“So as soon as she started talking, I said ‘we’re in, let’s do it,’” Morrell said.
Introducing Morrell on Friday, Frank welcomed those in attendance and opened in prayer. “I’m a local and I’m a Christian pastor, so I really believe in ministering to hurting people in general. Children specifically, through CASA. And unfortunately there’s a really great need for children to be advocated for and protected,” Frank said.
Judge Nathan Meeks of grant superior court two spoke to that need, citing 297 child in need of service cases active in the county.
“In many ways, there are the eyes; they are the ears of the court,” Meeks said, “Without them, we cannot do what we do on a weekly basis.”
Among CASA members and Grant County residents in attendance were Senator Nick McKinley and State Representative Lori Goss Reaves.
“I have a lot of respect for the volunteers, and just to thank them for what they do every day on behalf of children who need them,” Reaves said.
Attending was CASA’s state director, Melissa Cunningham
“This is probably one of our strongest programs,” Cunningham said.
Cunningham said they are working to navigate the incoming reduction and are looking to CASA at the national level for answers.
“My heart is with this group,” Cunningham said, “There is an energy, there is a heart there that you don’t catch every day.”
CASA awaits the end of the federal fiscal year, Sept 30, to see exactly how much funding may be lost.