Dimitra Rizzi, 64, of St. Charles is currently juggling two cases as a volunteer for CASA Kane County, a nonprofit that advocates for children in foster care.
Rizzi started out as a Guardian ad Litem, essentially a legal advocate for children under the care of the courts who can make recommendations to judges, almost two years ago. She began volunteering for the organization while she was still working, but has since retired — and bumped up her caseload from one to two. She’s also more recently joined CASA Kane County’s board.
Rizzi works on cases with a friend, her college roommate. They conduct visits together, write reports jointly and cover for each other if one of them is unavailable.
The job of volunteers like Rizzi, she explained, is solely to look out for what’s best for the children they represent, and to be someone they can count on.
For one of their cases, Rizzi recalled how a child had remarked that “no one ever stays around.”
“And we went from, ‘No one stays around,’ to now, when we leave, he’ll say, ‘Bye, love you,’” she said.
Rizzi was among the dozens who gathered Thursday for Hands Around the Courthouse, an annual event hosted by CASA Kane County in observance of National Child Abuse Prevention Month.
The event, which took place at the Kane County Courthouse in Geneva, is meant to be a reminder of the need to protect children from abuse and neglect and raise awareness of the effects of child abuse, per the organization.
CASA Kane County is a nonprofit organization that advocates for children in foster care through the advocacy of Court Appointed Special Advocate, or CASA, volunteers. The group recruits, trains and supervises volunteers who represent children in the foster care system in juvenile courts, according to its website.
CASA Kane County works on over 300 cases annually, and served more than 600 children in 2025, officials have said. Last year, the group helped 220 children get reunited with their families, adopted or find permanency through guardianship, according to the group’s executive director Jim Di Ciaula.
“These are children whose futures change because someone showed up,” Di Ciaula said on Thursday.
More Top Picks Best Rechargeable Headlamps
In just the first three months of the year, however, Di Ciaula said CASA Kane County has already seen 59 children enter foster care.
At the event, community members held a moment of silence for victims of child abuse and heard from local leaders about initiatives going on in Kane County meant to help children and their families.
“Days like this are reminders to me that two things can be true at the same time,” Kane County Chief Judge Robert Villa said at Thursday’s event. “It is terrible (that we) have a day or a month of child abuse prevention. It is terrible that we have to have an organization like CASA … to serve this purpose of preventing additional child abuse in the future. And, at the same time, it’s wonderful to see so many people committed to just that.”
Villa went on to describe an effort underway in Kane County to create a neutral space for supervised parenting time and child exchanges for families involved in court proceedings, which families receiving support from CASA may one day use.
Di Ciaula pointed to an effort CASA is leading called Kane County Circle of Care, which, per the county, is looking to create a coordinated service network providing support to at-risk youth and families and reduce the number of children entering foster care.
In an interview with The Beacon-News, Di Ciaula explained that the organization is identifying resources and community partners available in Kane County, and is working to create a sort of search tool that would help families in the county learn what resources are available to them.
On Thursday, Di Ciaula also highlighted the group’s planned conference on May 1 meant to bring together parents, educators, service providers and community members to learn about prevention and early intervention efforts.
This summer, the organization also has plans to launch programming for the children it serves and their families, Di Ciaula said on Thursday, calling it “self-care for kids.”
Tarra Winters, the executive director of Prevent Child Abuse Illinois, similarly emphasized the importance of prevention when it comes to addressing child abuse, pointing to things like voluntary home visiting programs.
“Prevention begins when families and communities are empowered to define what support looks like,” Winters said, “and when our systems align to meet those needs.”
Thursday’s event is likely the last time the annual event will be held while CASA Kane County is officially based out of the Geneva courthouse.
The organization was recently told by the county that it has to vacate its current space in the building, where it has been housed for years. Since then, CASA has decided to purchase a new space for its operations, which it plans to close on in the summer and move into during the fall. CASA is also in the process of launching a capital campaign to raise funds for the move and the organization’s operations more generally.
But Di Ciaula said the group will likely still hold the annual awareness event at the courthouse, or at the county’s judicial center, in future years, despite the impending move.
And, looking forward, Rizzi emphasized the organization’s ongoing need for help from community members. She acknowledged that many people don’t get involved until they’re older, but that the organization aims to have a diverse group of volunteers.
“Anyone that thinks about children and the future of our country and the children in it … should look to be part of CASA,” Rizzi said. “Because there’s so many of these kids that have been neglected or abused or both that could grow up to change the world if they had someone that cared. And I know there are so many more people out there that care.”