photo by: Douglas County CASA

Douglas County CASA is gearing up to move to a new office space at 725 N. 2nd St. in North Lawrence.

With an impending move to a much larger office space, a Douglas County nonprofit that advocates for kids under the protection of the court system is preparing for what it hopes will be a period of substantial growth.

That nonprofit is Douglas County Court Appointed Special Advocates, commonly referred to as CASA. The agency is at the tail end of a $1 million capital campaign to help it purchase and renovate a new facility — an office suite at 725 N. Second St. in North Lawrence. With only $100,000 to go to reach that goal, CASA has secured the space and is preparing to make the move from its current location in downtown Lawrence, just down the street from the Douglas County Courthouse.

Renovation work has already begun, including painting and other planning work as the agency decides how to arrange staff at the new office, and tentative plans call for a move-in date by early fall at the latest.

The Journal-World toured the space with Executive Director Erick Vaughn and development director Sarah Hoadley on Thursday afternoon, and both of them said it’ll be a welcome change.

photo by: Austin Hornbostel/Journal-World

Douglas County CASA Executive Director Erick Vaughn and development director Sarah Hoadley are pictured at the nonprofit’s new office Thursday, May 18, 2023.

In large part, that’s because they’ll be moving from their current roughly 2,300-square-foot space to a two-floor, 6,900-square-foot office also equipped with a warehouse area. Vaughn said CASA will be going from multiple staff members either needing to work from home or double up in shared offices to having ample space to work with — not only for staff members but also for partner agencies who come to CASA to meet with volunteers and clients.

“Having our own space in order to do that is so important, and that’s why we’re so excited to find this space,” Vaughn told the Journal-World.

CASA recruits, trains and supports volunteers who advocate for children under the protection of the county’s court system who have experienced abuse and neglect. Those volunteers are appointed by a judge to meet regularly with a child, review records and speak with family members and professionals involved in the child’s case, then report information to the judge and make recommendations based on the child’s best interest.

That means that by nature, the work CASA is doing requires confidentiality that there simply isn’t the space to accommodate in the current office. The new space has no shortage of private offices available to solve that problem.

photo by: Austin Hornbostel/Journal-World

Renovation work at Douglas County CASA’s new office is well underway, and the agency will soon have much more private office space available for its staff and partner agencies to use.

Not only is the agency moving into a much larger home, but the message from Vaughn and Hoadley this week was that they’re expecting even further growth when it comes to their personnel.

“I think a lot about how we, as a nonprofit, are now in this position of being in our own safe and secure and permanent home, which is what we want for our kids,” Vaughn said. “So hopefully, as we do this, we’ll be able to grow and make this happen for the kids and the families that we serve.”

Agency leaders are anticipating doubling their staff in the next three years, a move that would allow CASA to eliminate its client waiting list. That would mean supporting eight full-time volunteer supervisors; the agency currently has only one full-time volunteer supervisor, and another four who work part-time.

Vaughn said the warehouse area at the back of the office is planned to be a space the agency can grow into as it continues that expansion.

photo by: Austin Hornbostel/Journal-World

Douglas County CASA’s new office has a warehouse space at the back, which leaders with the agency are hoping will one day be a space to expand into as the nonprofit grows its staff.

“That’s a very ambitious goal, but so was (the new building),” Hoadley added. “The feedback we’ve gotten from friends and supporters and long-time partners is that there is the capacity and the compassion in this community to make that happen, if only we had the opportunity to share our mission with enough people.”

It’ll be a process to get to that point, though, since it will depend on the agency’s ability to recruit enough volunteers. In the meantime, Hoadley said agency leaders have floated the idea of leasing out some of its new office space to outside agencies in need while they’re still growing CASA’s staff.

On top of growing the staff, Vaughn said he sees the new space as a vehicle for increased partnerships with other agencies; CASA currently works with partners like KVC Kansas and the Kansas Department for Children and Families. That’s not to mention the one-on-one work that takes place between CASA volunteers, therapists and other folks accountable for a child’s case.

“Lots of folks we work with, they’re in similar situations as other nonprofits of not having a great office space, working from home, those sorts of things,” Vaughn said. “… Most of our work is about relationships, and sometimes you need to have that difficult conversation face-to-face.”

photo by: Austin Hornbostel/Journal-World

On the office’s second floor, an existing conference room space is just in need of some tweaks like new furniture.

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The funds to secure the new building have come in chunks so far, starting with a gift in longtime CASA donor William Dann’s will. More recently, CASA announced that the Sunderland Foundation — a Kansas City family foundation dedicated to providing grants for nonprofits’ capital building projects — had awarded the agency a $300,000 gift to support renovations.

“It wasn’t that long ago that this sort of seemed like a pipe dream, and we quickly discovered that any available commercial rental space would’ve been far more expensive than what we were previously paying,” Hoadley said. “It just made no sense to try to continue leasing something and be under that obligation when we had this opportunity — totally unexpected — to consider owning property and taking it over and having the room to grow.”

But that doesn’t mean the work is done yet. The remaining $100,000 for the campaign is still needed to support renovation as it continues, Vaughn said, but mostly items that can wait until after CASA has moved in. Folks with an interest in donating can contact Vaughn at evaughn@dccasaks.org or Hoadley at shoadley@dccasaks.org to learn more. There’s also a donor link on CASA’s website.

Hoadley added that the nonprofit is also seeking volunteers, with no particular experience necessary. Volunteers just must be at least 21 years old and, ideally, willing to commit about three hours a week for at least a year building a “consistent presence” in the life of the child they’re working with. CASA does all the training, and the agency’s volunteer supervisors are there as a resource every step of the way.

“They’re the eyes and ears of the court,” Hoadley said. “There’s no one else who has the time to focus on only one kid in the kind of detail our volunteers do … You name it, they’re just around to make sure nothing goes through the cracks, and then they can tell the judge what they’ve learned and that informs these decisions.”