Children right here in Jasper County need adults
just like YOU to show up and speak up for them.
You can Change a Child’s Story.
Children right here in Jasper County need adults just like YOU to show up and speak up for them. You can Change a Child’s Story.
Jasper County CASA empowers local volunteers to serve as advocates for children living the chaos of foster care. Our volunteer advocates ensure that a child’s physical and emotional health is provided for in a safe and loving home environment. CASA volunteers advocate for the best interest of each child.
Donating to CASA ensures that we can provide trained volunteers to serve children in foster care in our community. It helps us provide supervisors to guide the volunteers throughout the process. And it gives our CASA kids a home where they can interact with their advocate in a safe and secure homelike environment.
We recruit volunteers, provide thorough training, observe as they take the CASA oath, appoint an advocate to a case, and guide them as they Change a Child’s Life. No volunteer experience compares to being a CASA.
Jasper County CASA is dedicated to recruiting, training, and supporting volunteer advocates from our community to serve children in Jasper County who have been abused and/or neglected and to ensure they are in a safe, permanent home as quickly as possible.
Debi Koelkebeck founded Jasper County CASA and trained the first eight volunteers in January of 2019. Debi was inspired to launch CASA in Jasper County while serving as an advocate in Newton County. More than five years later, Debi leads a staff of six in her role as a full-time VOLUNTEER executive director. Thanks to generous donors and a successful capital campaign also led by Debi, the CASA Training and Connection Center was completed in January 2023. It serves as safe, secure, home-like environment to conduct the business of CASA and host many visits of advocates and CASA kids.
Each CASA Volunteer is assigned a supervisor who will guide them on their journey as an advocate for a child in foster care. The supervisor provides initial training and continual support throughout the case. Supervisors attend team meetings and court hearings with volunteers. They are available to assist with the day-to-day challenges of case management. Volunteers are not on this journey alone. Our team is always there to lend support.
Jeremy Drinkwitz, President
Mercy Hospital Joplin, CEO
Louise Secker, Vice President
Keller Williams Realty, Inc.
Andy Perigo, Co-Treasurer
Mid-Missouri Bank, President
Vicky Mieseler
Ozark Center, Chief Administrative Officer
Matthew Harding
Joplin Schools, Assistant Superintendent
Mike Gray
Forvis Mazars, Partner
Clive Veri
Commerce Bank, Regional President
Suzanne Hall, Past President
Leggett & Platt, Asst. Treasurer
Aston Stovern, Secretary
Cardinal Scale, Corporate Treasurer
Alison Malinowski Sunday, Co-Treasurer
Lafayette House, Retired CEO
John Hoffmann
KSN-KODE TV, General Manager
Kristie Crossland
Community Volunteer
Aimee Maningas
Maningas Cosmetic Surgery, Practice Manager
