Mesilla Valley Court Appointed Special AdvocatesMesilla Valley CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate), Inc. was established in September 1993 at the request of the Judges of New Mexico's Third District Court. We currently serve the court of the Honorable Marci E. Beyer.
Before the formulation of the CASA program, many times decisions about the future of abused and neglected children were made without all of the facts and information necessary to determine what was truly in the best interest of those children. The solution is the advocate, an ordinary citizen who is trained and given tools to make an informed recommendation to the court as to what might be in the best interest of the children.
Our advocates are recruited, screened, receive a minimum of 30 hours of training, have a background check and are supervised by the Executive Director and our staff. Our advocates are sworn officers of the court, acting as the voice of the children and the “eyes and ears of the Children’s Court Judge”.