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Boston CASA
About
We are Boston CASA.
When the Department of Children and Families suspects a child has suffered abuse or neglect, they may remove them from their home and place them in the foster care system. The child is pulled from their familiar environment and thrust into a world of case workers, foster parents and attorneys as they face an unknown future. As their case enters the juvenile court system, a judge may request a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA), a volunteer who will watch over the child or sibling group throughout their case. It’s Boston CASA that makes this work possible.
We are the independent nonprofit that recruits, trains and supports volunteer child advocates.
Our volunteers:
- Advocate for the child’s best interest in court
- Collaborate with everyone in the child’s life to help ensure their physical, emotional, mental health, and educational needs are met
- Provide a consistent and stable adult presence in the child’s life
- Work on a single case–one child or sibling group–at a time, and stay with that case until it is closed
- The goal for every case is permanency—for each child to find a safe and permanent home, and for teens aging out of the foster care system to transition successfully into independent adulthood.
No child should have to walk the path of foster care alone.
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highlights
Boston CASA
Conversation Facilitators
Jaylene Tiscareno
Transition Age Youth Coordinator
Jaylene is a graduate of Boston College, where she earned her Master of Social Work with a macro specialization and global practice focus in May 2023. Before joining Boston CASA, Jaylene worked with the Massachusetts Commission for the Status of Women on a variety of outreach and advocacy activities. As a woman and first-generation Mexican American her passion lies in advocating for marginalized communities and uses these identities to drive her work in this field.
Jaylene Tiscareno's Favorite Highlights
Boston CASA
Featured Themes
Boston CASA brought together participants from a range of backgrounds—lifelong locals, students drawn by education and jobs, recent arrivals, youth with lived experience in foster care—whose stories reveal both the resilience and stark challenges shaping life in Boston today. Many spoke of moments of genuine neighborly support, strong youth programs, and the everyday sense of pride or connection found in local parks, workplaces, and city events. Yet beneath these bright spots, urgent worries surfaced: the cost of housing and basics, a public transit system struggling to meet demand, inequitable access to resources and community spaces, difficulty building or finding diverse, inclusive neighborhoods, and a deeply felt impact of income and racial segregation. Participants voiced a collective hope for a future Boston where affordability, clean and safe streets, inclusive opportunities, responsive social support, and empowered, diverse leadership offer everyone—not just the privileged few—a true sense of belonging and stability.
Boston CASA