Hannah Hinman, the executive director for Grant-Harney County Court Appointed Special Advocates, planned to join staff and volunteers in Salem Feb. 11 with the Oregon CASA Network to lobby the Oregon Legislature as they go into session.

The state network’s 2020 legislative priorities include funding to hire one full-time employee at each of its 22 local CASA locations across the state, which would cost $141,740 and a one-time investment of roughly $2.5 million to fund additional advertising and recruitment activities. Additionally, the organization is looking to expand training for a more extensive and more diverse group of volunteers that would serve 1,000 more children in foster care.

There are currently 69 children in care between Grant and Harney counties, Hinman said, but Grant County accounts for only about a quarter of them right now — usually it is closer to a third.

“Our organization is currently able to serve about half of the total in both counties,” she said.

Hinman said there are about five volunteers awaiting training and another five people who have expressed interest in becoming a volunteer.

Hinman said this is the second time that she has attended CASA Lobby Day, and she is confident about this year’s short session.

“It appears that we have much more momentum than we did last year,” she said.

The politically divisive nature of last year’s session overshadowed many issues where the state legislature has common ground, the welfare of children being one of them, Hinman said.

Hinman said she wants to thank the legislators for their support of Grant-Harney County CASA’s volunteer advocacy for neglected and abused children.

“I hope to highlight the heightened need for CASA advocacy in our counties, particularly in Harney, which had the highest child victimization and children in care rates in the state in 2018,” she said.