Children going through the family court system in eastern Kentucky could be getting additional support.

The nonprofit CASA, which stands for Court Appointed Special Advocates, has opened a new branch.

CASA of the Appalachian Mountains currently has five volunteers to represent the seven counties it serves.

We spoke to the staff who've been hard at work looking for new volunteers.

We are employed, not Leslie Letcher, Magoffin, Perry and Park Counties.

We're in seven counties since January.

Between January and June 227 cases have been filed for children due to abuse, neglect and dependency in our service area alone.

When we have full capacity volunteers where we're at right now with the 60 volunteers, that would be 150 children we could be serving.

But right now we're only servicing 13.

So the more volunteers, the bigger difference we're making in these children's lives.

We currently have five volunteers working under.

The goal for us in these first couple years that we're starting is we want to spread that awareness.

We want people to know what we're here for and find people of like mindedness that want to help the children of our service area.

You know, we always talk about, you know, our service area kind of being forgotten, if you will.

And we want to make sure that, you know, this doesn't continue to be forgotten.

We want to make sure people are aware of what's happening to the children in our area and that there's ways to help them.

And this is just this just happens to be one of them.

So if we have a child who is insane, Magoffin County, the only volunteer that we have available, is in Leslie County.

That is more of an ask on that volunteer.

Whereas if we have someone local, not only do they know the local culture of that county and can relate to the child, they if you're in several counties, all right, that's a further distance for you to have to drive to meet with that child.

One of our biggest needs at our branch, of course, of the Appalachian Mountains is finding volunteers from diverse ethnic groups, cultures and people from the LGBTQ plus community.

We are always looking for volunteers that can relate to our children.

Our children come from all walks of life and we want to be able to better service them by providing them with an adult, a safe person who they feel they can better relate to.

Having these different branches of Costa really does look at these personal cultures and lives of children.

If we had someone from, say, Ohio or Nevada, somewhere like that, who was over our cost of ranch, they're not going to understand what our children in Appalachia are coming from and vice versa.

I wouldn't be able to as readily meet the needs of a child from another state.

Someone should join CASA because if they are looking to give back, if they're looking to, you know, further eastern Kentucky and create the next generation, basically we've got to start when they're young and we got to make sure that everyone has an opportunity to thrive and grow.

And being a part of CASA is one of the ways to do that.

And you can help these children find their permanent home, respond safety, and find a home that they can thrive and find love in.

CASA of the Appalachian Mountains is also on the lookout for male volunteers to better connect with some of the boys.

The group serves.