Exchange Club Family Center takes in CASA

Faced with a budget crisis and the possibility of closure, a Memphis charity that advocates for the area’s most vulnerable children recently found an advocate of its own.

Effective July 1, Court Appointed Special Advocates of Memphis and Shelby County (CASA) is no longer an independent nonprofit. It has been absorbed by the Exchange Club Family Center without an interruption in its day-to-day activities or a change in location.

“They were in danger of having to close their doors,” said Barbara King, executive director for the center. “Funding is a major issue for us as well, but I just couldn’t let them die. I couldn’t do it, it’s too important.”

CASA is based in Juvenile Court, where it is tasked with helping the court gather information in cases where children have been abused or neglected.

The two organizations have worked closely together for more than 20 years, so when CASA’s funding crisis grew severe enough to put the organization in jeopardy last winter, its leadership approached the Exchange Club Family Center, which also works with troubled children and families.

“It’s a win-win for both organizations,” King said.

The center will shoulder CASA’s $175,000 annual operating budget, and will absorb the three full-time staff members into its own 35-member staff. CASA will be called a “signature program” of the Exchange Club Family Center, a designation created especially for the merger.

Daphni Ishak, CASA’s program coordinator, said the decision to merge with the center was the right one for CASA, which has been in Memphis since 1988.