CASA Fetes Summit’s Anita Porto

Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) of Union County’s 3rd annual Foster the Dream Gala at Galloping Hill Golf Course in Kenilworth in November was soldout, as more than 240 attendees joined the festivities to celebrate the nonprofit’s advocacy work for children in foster care and several honorees, including Summit resident Anita Porto.
Porto, who received the Dream-Keeper Award for Outstanding Volunteerism, completed CASA’s 30-hour training and began advocating for foster youth in 2012. Porto’s casework has included maneuvering through an overburdened child-welfare and legal system to ensure developmental delays, medical concerns, sexual abuse and complex immigration matters were addressed in as timely a manner as possible.
Natalie Deo, program director at CASA of Union County, and Porto’s supervisor, noted, “Anita fought for youth that couldn’t fight for themselves. She fought a system that was cheating her youth, jumped hurdles and stripped away suffocating red tape. With persistence and commitment, she prevailed. Anita’s adept navigation of complicated issues changed the lives of three girls who had no voice of their own.”
Porto was born in Puerto Rico, grew up in  Brazil and adventured to the United States for college, where she met her husband. When they started a family, Porto left a banking career to care for her sons. Since 1998, she has been active in volunteerism, including teaching English as a Second Language, and working with Literacy Volunteers of Morris County, for which she has volunteered and now sits on the board. Porto also assists Orange High School students with college applications.
CASA of Union County recruits, trains, supervises and supports community volunteers to serve as the eyes and ears of the judge, and the voice for children in foster care through no fault of their own. After training in Westfield, CASAs are sworn in by a family court judge and empowered by court order to speak to all parties in the child’s life: foster parents, teachers, doctors, therapists and more. CASAs regularly meet with their foster youth to ensure their needs are met and best interests remain priority. There are nearly 600 Union County children currently in foster care due to abuse, neglect or abandonment, and CASA of Union County serves 143 of them. Its goal is to secure one CASA for every foster child.
For details on ways to help Union County children in foster care, including information on CASA’s next advocate training class, visit www.casaofunioncounty.org or call 908-527-7040.