Illinois Bar Foundation grants totaling $9,000 were presented recently to representatives of two downstate organizations of court appointed special advocates.

CASA of Peoria received $5,000 to enable it to grow in numbers of volunteers and staff to serve more than a thousand cases of child abuse and neglect pending in Juvenile Court.

Opened in July 2005, this office has a goal of serving an additional 40 to 50 children per year, encouraging their families to use community resources to move beyond cycles of abuse, violence and poverty.

CASA provides specially trained volunteers help the court system administer justice to abused children through a Friend of the Court model program.

Volunteers are matched with parties through court orders signed by the judge. They become objective, independent counsel who appear in court to answer questions and make recommendations based on written reports.

For more information, call Peoria CASA executive director Pamela Perrilles at (309) 669-2939.

Also receiving a Bar Foundation grant of $4,000 is CASA of McLean County, a project of the McLean County Child Protection Network, to help fulfill a request from the judiciary to expand its service delivery into Livingston County.

The project has collaborative agreements with the Department of Children and Family Services, the two county state's attorney's offices, law enforcement officials, medical providers, hospitals and mental health therapists.

CASA started in McLean County in 1996 and began outreach in Livingston County in 2003. The Child Protection Network estimates that 137 victims of child abuse and neglect, who are wards of the court, will be served this year by trained volunteers.

For more information, call executive director Billie Larkin at (309) 888-5854.