Washington Association of Child Advocate Programs

Description

We help to represent 35 Child Advocate programs in the state. These programs recruit, screen, train, and supervise community volunteers who assist the court in protecting the best interests of abused abandoned, and neglected children in Washington State. In 1977, Judge David Soukup, presiding judge of King Co. Superior Court in Seattle, started a volunteer Guardian ad Litem program to make sure he would know all he could about the long-term welfare needs of each dependent child that came through his court room. From our humble beginnings, we have grown to a statewide network that includes 35 local programs serving in 35 of the state’s 39 counties and 5 Tribal Nations. In 2020, our Association officially changed it name to the Washington Association of Child Advocate Programs to whose membership includes any program in Washington State that serves dependent children with volunteer guardians ad litem, regardless of a local program’s choice to affiliate with external entities. Washington State is 1500+ child advocate strong network serving over 5,000+ of our most vulnerable children.