After years of planning and fundraising, a new Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) program has finally gained a presence in Lancaster County with the introduction of Executive Director Jessica Laspino. Crystal Gingrich, executive director of Children and Youth, announced the new appointee to the County Commissioners at their Wednesday, September 2 meeting. Laspino will lead the program in Lancaster after having worked with other CASA efforts in Cape May and Atlantic County, New Jersey.
The CASA program coordinates a group of volunteers, each assigned to a single child in foster care or out-of-home placement. This advocate will visit with the child and caregivers to present an advisory court report to the judge assigned to the case. As Gingrich explained it, “It gives the judge another set of eyes and ears on what’s going on with the child.” As a private non-profit, the organization is not directed by Children and Youth and will provide an additional perspective alongside that of the agency’s case workers.
Since these services are not mandated in Pennsylvania, CASA programs are found only in 13 other counties, and these are funded primarily through private donations.
Planning for Lancaster’s CASA program has been underway for about five years, Gingrich said. Most of this process consisted of the search for private funding, which yielded contributions from the CASA’s national center, Lancaster General Hospital, the Junior League of Lancaster, and numerous individual donors.
Laspino said that her immediate goal as executive director is to start the first 30-hour training class for CASA volunteers. She expects that the class could begin as soon as late October.
Also at the Commissioners Meeting, the Lancaster County Community Foundation announced the recipients of this year’s “Better Lancaster Fund Grant.” The grant, founded as a charitable endowment by the County Commissioners in 2007, is geared to assist community efforts relating to early childhood development.
This year’s allocation, totaling $29,000, will support Lancaster Day Care Center’s “Ready, Set, Read” program, which will seek to encourage low-income parents of pre-school aged children to promote reading in the home; along with SouthEast Lancaster Health Services’ “Baby’s First Doctor” program, which will provide “comprehensive, culturally competent” education to promote prenatal medical care and to provide such care to local residents in need.
Also at the meeting, Library System economic development manager Rhonda Kleiman updated the Commissioners on the progress of the Library System’s “Economic Gardening” Program, which most notably includes the services of the Duke Street Business Center. According to Kleiman, since the center’s opening, it has “become wildly popular, beyond our imaginations.” Kleiman said that, in 2008, through Library System services and the Duke Street Business Center,
- Over 4,000 businesses were served
- Over 1,800 questions were handled
- 62 free programs were provided—with over 900 attendees
- Over 14,500 log-ins and 48,000 searches were conducted through licensed databases
