Piedmont CASA President & CEO

Description

Piedmont Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA), a nonprofit organization in Charlottesville, Virginia, seeks an energetic, empathic, and skilled leader to become its next President.

Reporting to the Board of Directors, the President serves as CASA’s Chief Executive Officer, and is responsible for the organization’s management and operation. As of 2020, this includes the oversight of Piedmont CASA’s approximately $1M budget and supervision of the eight full-time and two part-time staff members.

The President serves as the key institutional representative in the community and fosters meaningful collaborations, donor relationships, and community engagement. They are charged with working with the board to develop and execute the organizational vision, lead the legal and ethical fulfillment of the mission, and ensure adherence to the core values of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Duties include program oversight; fiscal affairs; fundraising and advancement; program evaluation; external communications and public relations; collaborations with community partners; recruitment and retention of staff; compliance with regulatory authorities, national standards, and contract and grant obligations; and implementing the organization’s strategic plans and initiatives.

The successful candidate will bring experience in a leadership position with a nonprofit or other organization, including experience with budget development and fiscal oversight. They will demonstrate success in fundraising and the ability to communicate with a diverse array of constituencies, including donors, volunteers, judges and other court personnel, child welfare and social service professionals, government officials, community coalitions, staff, and the media, and the general public.

The ability to balance a broad and often deadline-driven portfolio of responsibilities is important, as is the ability to listen to, engage, mentor, and lead staff members in a meaningful and collaborative manner.

The successful candidate will care deeply about child advocacy and will demonstrate a strong commitment to anti-racism, diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Piedmont CASA has been a registered nonprofit organization in Virginia since 1995. As an organization, Piedmont CASA trains volunteers and professional staff to advocate for the best interests of abused and neglected children and youth, promoting and supporting safe, permanent and nurturing homes for these victims in the child welfare system, the community, and before the courts of the 16th Judicial District of Virginia. Piedmont CASA promotes awareness about child abuse and neglect through community education and outreach.

Please send a cover letter and resume by February 1, 2021 to PCASASearchCommittee@gmail.com Applying before the deadline will ensure full consideration of the application; the position is open until filled and applications will continue to be considered on an ongoing basis until hiring is complete.

The compensation for this role will be in the $80,000-$100,000 range, depending on experience.

Piedmont CASA is an equal opportunity employer. Piedmont CASA will not unlawfully discriminate against or harass any employee or applicant for employment or against any volunteer or applicant seeking to serve as a volunteer on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability, or any other basis made illegal by the laws of the United States or the State of Virginia.

Additional Info

CASA Programs and Piedmont CASA

The Court Appointed Special Advocate Program (CASA) was conceived in Seattle, Washington in 1976 by Judge David Soukup, the presiding judge of King County Superior Court. In response to a rise in child abuse and neglect cases, Judge Soukup and the Seattle court began recruiting and training volunteers to serve as advocates for children and provide information to help determine the best placement for each child’s circumstances. From this pilot program, CASA grew into a nation-wide nonprofit association with CASA programs operating around the country.

Today, there are approximately 950 programs in 49 states and the District of Columbia. In 2018, more than 93,000 people contributed time and services as CASA volunteers to over 270,000 abused and neglected children throughout the United States. You can read more about the history and impact of CASA throughout the country here.

The CASA program in Virginia grew out of efforts directed at family reunification and permanency planning for children in foster care cases. In 1990, the Virginia General Assembly enacted legislation providing for the statewide implementation of the CASA program, and the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) was charged with implementation of the CASA program. Today, programs have been established in 27 localities in Virginia. DCJS statistics indicate that in the fiscal year 2017-2018, over 3,900 children were served by 1,410 CASA Volunteers who contributed 151,714 hours in Virginia.

In Central Virginia, Piedmont CASA opened its office in January 1995 in the Old Jailer’s House (which was donated by Albemarle County) next to the Charlottesville/Albemarle Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court. Since then, the organization has trained volunteers and professional staff to advocate for the best interests of abused and neglected children and youth, promoting and supporting safe, permanent and nurturing homes for these victims in the child welfare system, the community, and before the courts of the 16th Judicial District of Virginia. Piedmont CASA promotes awareness about child abuse and neglect through community education and outreach.

Piedmont CASA serves Albemarle, Greene, and Louisa Counties, and the City of Charlottesville, with a combined population of over 210,000. The poverty rate in the service area ranges from 8.1% to 23.1%, with an average of 12.8%. Of the children Piedmont CASA serves, more than 86% come from homes surviving at or below the Federal poverty line. In fiscal year 2019, there were 1,431 child abuse and neglect related hearings in the juvenile courts of the four jurisdictions: 343 Termination of Parental Rights hearings; 364 Permanency Planning hearings; 277 Foster Care Review hearings and 573 Abuse/Neglect hearings. That same year, there were 273 children in the Piedmont CASA program, most of whom were placed in foster care because they could not live safely at home. Approximately 98% of Piedmont CASA youth come from families where at least one parent is unemployed, homeless, deceased, not involved, or incarcerated.

Recognizing the difficulties for children who age out of the foster care system, in 2014 Piedmont CASA introduced Fostering Futures, a curriculum that prepared experienced Volunteers to serve older youth in foster care more effectively. Fostering Futures demonstrated the need for more dedicated resources for this issue, which led to the creation of Bridges to Success, a program unique to Piedmont CASA, through which staff coaches work closely with the assigned CASA Volunteer to engage youth ages 13 and up and help them start the long-term life planning process.

All Piedmont CASA Volunteers are trained to promote appropriate interventions, which are generally relationship-based, and focus on healing and supporting the child-parent relationship. Staff and Volunteers are able to assist the court and child welfare system in ensuring safety, appropriate placement, and the services necessary to ensure physical health, mental health, and educational stability. CASA Volunteers remain unique in their ability to stay with children throughout the life of a case. Even when social workers, foster parents, and schools change, CASA Volunteers do not – thus providing important continuity for the child. Children and youth with Piedmont CASA Volunteers have a better opportunity to break the cycle of abuse and neglect, and become stable, productive adults.

Since opening its offices in January 1995, Piedmont CASA has trained 756 CASA volunteers who have advocated for over 2,200 children within the 16th Judicial District of Virginia. Consequently, the program has experienced a dramatic increase in court referrals. However, the number of child abuse and neglect cases reported to the courts has dropped significantly since March, due to social distancing and sheltering-in-place. As a result, the number of children Piedmont CASA served decreased from 274 in fiscal year 2019 to 242 in fiscal year 2020. Once the pandemic ends, there is likely to be a surge in children entering the system.

The Board of Directors has committed to program development enabling Piedmont CASA to provide a CASA volunteer to every child who needs one. To do this, Piedmont CASA strives to maintain annually 107 CASA volunteers available to serve the city of Charlottesville, and counties of Albemarle, Greene and Louisa.