Challenge
The Massachusetts Court Appointed Special Advocates Program (CASA) is an invaluable resource for the state’s juvenile court system. The CASA program trains volunteers to perform investigations and provide support to families navigating the juvenile courts. The volunteers of CASA fill a significant void in the state’s juvenile court system, which is hampered by budget cuts, understaffing, and saturated dockets.

Despite the obvious need for this program, CASA faced elimination in Massachusetts Fiscal Year 2003 and 2004 budgets. Facing this dire situation, CASA approached O’Neill and Associates to prevent its elimination and to secure enough funds to continue its operations.

Solution
O’Neill and Associates launched a campaign to raise awareness among key legislators, opinion leaders and influential members of the media in order to provide the relevant parties with the information needed to win their support of CASA and to opposition to budget cuts that would eliminate it.

In 2003, CASA received a grant to garner statewide awareness of the organization, which enabled O’Neill and Associates to develop an even more involved campaign to maintain CASA’s funding. O’Neill and Associates created a communications campaign that included the development of a brochure and press materials as well as placement of op-eds regarding CASA’s budget cuts.

In addition, O’Neill and Associates planned and executed an event called the “Powerful Voices” Awards to raise awareness of the impact that CASA volunteers make in a child’s life.

Results
O’Neill and Associates decisively prevented the elimination of CASA in the FY 2003 and 2004 budgets by garnering the necessary support from the Massachusetts Senate and House of Representatives. Neither legislative body voted to cut CASA from the state budget, nor did a veto cut the program’s funding. Since that time, O’Neill and Associates has continued to work on CASA’s behalf in each budget cycle, effectively defending against threats of elimination each year.

In addition, CASA received significant coverage in the Boston Globe, Springfield Republican, Northampton Gazette, Worcester Telegram & Gazette and the Greenfield Recorder.

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