About CASA

The Southeast CASA Program is a private, non-profit organization founded in 2011.  

Retired Magistrate Judge Mary Dell Cody is the person who started the process of establishing a Court-Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) program in southeastern South Dakota. An initial committee formed a Board of Directors in early 2011, with Mary Dell Cody as President. The Board completed the paperwork to establish the Southeast CASA Program as a 501 c 3 non-profit corporation, elected officers and voted on Bylaws, and filed its Articles of Incorporation. A grant application for start-up funding was submitted to the National CASA Association, and funding of $45,000 was received in mid-2011.

The Board decided to begin CASA services in Yankton County.   

By April 2012, the Southeast CASA Program had six individuals trained as CASA volunteers and began assigning them to Abuse and Neglect cases in Yankton County. 

No additional funding has been received from National CASA since the start-up funding was awarded, but grant funding has been awarded to Southeast CASA since 2013 from the SD CASA Commission, the SD Court Improvement Program, and the SD Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) Program.  What ultimately supports our program are individual donations. Without the communities help, Southeast CASA would not be able to provide a voice for each child that is in the family court system. 

Over the course of many years Southeast CASA has expanded to include it's service area to Bon Homme, Clay, Turner, Yankton and Union Counties. Since 2012 nearly 400 children have been assigned to the Southeast CASA program as a result of their involvement with the court system through no fault of their own.

These children reside in our services area in Southeast South Dakota. Over the last few years, these numbers have continued to increase with our families struggling with substance abuse, mental health, poverty, and frequently lacking a solid support system or family structure they can turn to for help.

CASA programs are about reunification. Our ultimate goal is to ensure that every child who needs a CASA can have one. We continue to recruit and train new advocates to provide 100% coverage with no children on a wait list. .Please consider becoming an advocate today!