How We Began
In 1977, Judge David Soukup, presiding judge of King Co. Superior Court in Seattle, started a volunteer Guardian ad Litem program to make sure he would know all he could about the long-term welfare needs of each dependent child that came through his court room. During that first year, the King County program provided 110 trained volunteers for 498 children in 376 dependency cases.
Our Association was formed in 1988 by local programs and stakeholders to carry out statewide training, legislative advocacy, data collection and awareness statewide about the issues affecting abused and neglected children. From our humble beginnings, we have grown to a statewide network that includes 35 local programs serving in 35 of the state’s 39 counties and 5 Tribal Nations.
In 2020, our Association officially changed it name to the Washington Association of Child Advocate Programs to whose membership includes any program in Washington State that serves dependent children with volunteer guardians ad litem, regardless of a local program’s choice to affiliate with external entities.
Washington State is 1500+ child advocate strong network serving over 5,000+ of our most vulnerable children.