More than 700,000 children experience abuse or neglect each year in the United States, and many aren’t given a chance to speak up about their needs, wants and dreams.
With a court appointed special advocate (CASA), America’s most vulnerable children will have someone speaking up for them.
“We have the power to give a voice to those who do not have one, and that’s a responsibility and a need we should handle with great care and diligence,” said Alan Hallman, the executive director of Northwest Rocky Mountain CASA. “We are bestowed the honor to help them find their voice so that the judge assigned to their case can make child-informed decisions about their future.”
Northwest Rocky Mountain CASA serves children in the 14th judicial district, which includes Routt, Moffat and Grand counties. With an overarching mission to inspire, empower and educate the community and volunteers to advocate for the best interests of the child, the group offers two programs with distinct purposes. CASA Advocacy is where a volunteer advocates for children who have been determined by district court to have been abused or neglected by their parents or guardians. The second program, Rocky Mountain Visitation Centers, offers professional third-party supervised visitation for children and their families in a home-like, trauma-reducing setting. In 2022, 27 children were served by Northwest Rocky Mountain CASA volunteers, and the organization provided 377 hours of supervised child visitations.
Alpine Bank has helped to make these programs possible, Hallman said.
“Alpine Bank was one of our event sponsors at our 2023 Dancing with the Stars event in Steamboat Springs. Betsy Wood, an Alpine Bank employee, served as one of our ‘stars’ for the event. With Alpine Bank’s support, she raised $21,627 for our organization.”
The event wouldn’t have been as successful without the bank’s support, Hallman said.
“We served more children in need directly because of Alpine Bank’s amazing support. When community volunteers like Betsy and community businesses like Alpine Bank step forward with support for our organization, it gives us tremendous encouragement to keep doing the work that we do. We could not maintain the level of service we do without our community partners.”
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