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Indianapolis-based nonprofit Kids Voice of Indiana has finalized the details of a multi-million-dollar contract to provide court advocacy services for Marion County youth.
The contract, which extends through 2023, allows $400,000 of wiggle room to the $5.4 million budget for the remainder of 2021. Budgets for 2022 onward will be presented to the city by Oct. 1, said Kids Voice President and CEO Lindsay Scott.
In the days since the agreement was finalized, Scott and her team have been working to build capacity and implement all-new, but not unfamiliar, programming. Between our staff, our board, the Child Advocates employees that have come over, this is a 100% team effort, she said. I cannot stress enough how excited I am about the team that is now in place.
The organization that has provided court-appointed advocates for children passing through the Marion County judicial system for nearly 40 years has pulled out of contract negotiations more than a week before the new contract takes effect May 1.
The move throws into uncertainty the county s ability to provide enough guardians ad litem or child advocates, known as GALs or CASAs, to children who find themselves navigating legal dilemmas in the judicial system, like divorces, child abuse or neglect cases.
Child Advocates had been the court s provider of court-appointed special advocate services since 1982, but an external audit completed in January raised flags about how the organization was spending city funds. The city s contract with Child Advocates that started January 2020 for $5.4 million had to be re-negotiated twice to be increased to $8.8 million, according to the Office of Public Health and Safety.
City Will Not Renew Longtime CASA Contract
File photo. CASA workers at the statehouse.
The city of Indianapolis won’t renew its contract with the nonprofit providing Court Appointed Special Advocates, or CASAs, for youth in the child welfare system. The change comes after an external report examined expenses for Child Advocates.
The Office of Public Health and Safety, OPHS, notified Child Advocates of the decision last week. The report finds insufficiencies in spending that the nonprofit disputes.
Child Advocates CEO Cindy Booth said the move is concerning.
“That uncertainty and the quick way in which this has been done has really made us nervous about the safety and wellbeing of the children we currently have responsibility for,” Booth said.
Court-appointed special advocates, called CASAs, are volunteers who help children impacted by the welfare or justice systems navigate the judicial process, serving as their adult eyes and ears and mentors who can help them access needed services. Since the 1980s, Child Advocates of Indianapolis has been the nonprofit providing this support to Marion County children.
Last week, the city’s Office of Public Health and Safety, which manages the contract with Child Advocates, announced it would partner with Kids’ Voice of Indiana beginning May 1. However, Kids’ Voice does not provide CASA services, so the city has already authorized them to bring in Child Advocates as a subcontractor.
Child Advocates asks city to reconsider switch after losing contract it s held for 39 years ibj.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from ibj.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.