CASA of the Bluegrass introduced staff and volunteers to a new wooden model courtroom created by Creative Builder & Designer Josef R. Soper with Imagination Dollhouses for Children.

Imagination Dollhouses for Children was founded in 2008. The very first dollhouse was created by Soper and given as a gift for his oldest granddaughter. Since then, he’s been building and donating dollhouses to nonprofit organizations that work with children in crisis. Dollhouses have been delivered to Children’s Advocacy Centers in at least 22 states.

“Courtrooms are scary – even for adults! Play-scale Courtrooms bring the courtroom down to a child’s size and make it less threatening. Children who will have to testify are shown the whole courtroom and where various people will sit, including especially the defendant and the child.”-IDFC

Imagination Dollhouses’ mission is to provide, at no cost to the organization, a well-built, and easily navigable dollhouse in which children in crisis will feel comfortable exercising their imagination. Their play-scale courtrooms are also provided at no cost to nonprofit organizations that must prepare young children for the ordeal of testifying about their abuse in court.

CASA of the Bluegrass also sends a huge thank you to Boyle County High School students, Sophia Wilson, Joey Chen, and Emily Warriner for giving up their Saturday on Feb. 19 to finish up the service project. The students assisted CASA by painting wooden peg dolls to represent the various parties involved in a case.

Executive Director for CASA of the Bluegrass Tami Wilson said, “We really think this will be a great resource for child victims who may have to testify in a courtroom. While it’s very seldom that a child is required to appear in court, we want to be as ready as possible. Childhood trauma often either submerges itself into adulthood or bubbles over throughout a child’s life. We want to shelter them and make sure that our staff and volunteers are treating adverse childhood experiences properly. Soper’s model is helping us do just that. Boyle County High School students have also proven to be great allies for our fight against child abuse as well. We are truly thankful and always humble.”

CASA of the Bluegrass is also accepting donations that will help contribute to the advocacy and work toward finding permanency for abused, neglected and dependent children. Donate to casaofthebluegrass.org