CASA for the Highland Lakes Area, a non-profit organization that speaks up for the best interest of abused and neglected children in Blanco, Burnet, Lampasas, Llano, and San Saba counties, was recently awarded a grant by the Texas Bar Foundation to utilize distance learning technology to help train volunteers in rural areas.“We are extremely grateful to the Texas Bar Foundation for awarding us this grant,” said Sue Thornton, Executive Director for CASA for the Highland Lakes Area. “Technology potentially reduces travel time for training, which is an issue for some of our volunteers in the far reaches of our area. Anything we can do to make training more accessible improves our ability to recruit and train volunteers in some of our outlying areas. This lets us provide more services to more children.”CASA for the Highland Lakes Area recruits and trains volunteers to provide direct services to children after they have been removed from their home by the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services due to abuse or neglect. In the last 20 years, CASA for the Highland Lakes Area has served over 1300 abused and neglected children. In calendar year 2011, our 97 volunteers served over 245 abused and neglected children. Since its inception in 1965, the Texas Bar Foundation has awarded more than $13 million in grants to law-related programs. Supported by members of the State Bar of Texas, the Texas Bar Foundation is the nation’s largest charitably-funded bar foundation.For more information on becoming a CASA volunteer, as well as a list of upcoming CASA for the Highland Lakes Area events, please go to www.highlandlakescasa.com or call 325-388-3440.