In 1977,Judge David Soukup, concerned about making decisions regarding the lives of abused and neglected children without sufficient information, organized the first guardian ad litem program serving abused and neglected children.

Because some states require the guardian ad litem to be an attorney, the term Court Appointed Special Advocate --CASA-- was coined to describe volunteers from the local community trained to serve as advocates for abused and neglected children involved in juvenile proceedings.

So successful was this Seattle program, that soon judges all over the country began utilizing citizen advocates.

In 1990, the United States Congress encouraged the expansion of this program with the passage of the Victims of Child Abuse Act.

Today over 950 CASA programs are in operation, with 52,000 men and women serving as CASA volunteers.

The Little Dixie CASA program trained its first class of volunteer advocates in 1998. Under the umbrella of Little Dixie Community Action Agency, Inc., Little Dixie CASA serves Choctaw, McCurtain and Pushmataha Counties. The Program is staffed by three caring individuals, native to Southeastern Oklahoma.

Karla Luginbill (Program Director),
Dawn Standridge (Program Coordinator), and
Jerri Mitchell (Program Coordinator) manages the sattelite office in Idabel which opened October 2001.

In 2006 a total of 25 volunteer advocates were active in the Little Dixie CASA program, inlcluding 8 newly trained volunteers. These volunteers served a total of 60 children.