A Portland, Ore. program that advocates for abused children will be able to help more youth thanks to support from a new fund from Advantis Credit Union.

The GROW Community Fund awards small- and moderate-sized non-profits with funding for locally identified needs, according to the $864 million Advantis in Milwaukie, Ore., and CASA for Children.

The monies from the Advantis GROW grant will fund the purchase of new computer systems and software allowing CASA staff and operations to run at optimum efficiency and increase the number of children served to more than 1,000 at a time.

CASA said because it uses a decade-old computer system and software, a child's placement and support is often slowed down. State caseworkers' reports – legal documents required by judges, district attorneys and state attorney generals – are slow to reach their destinations, systems fail and memory capacity is limited, the group said.

Without the timely reports provided by CASA, judges cannot make the informed decisions they need to on behalf of these children, the agency said.

“Thanks to Advantis' GROW Community Fund support, we can help more children through a cumbersome court process. To have dependable technology is priceless when you consider how computer-dependent we are,” said Tim Hennessy, CASA's executive director.

CASA helped 855 abused children in 2011 but more than 3,000 are in need of advocacy, the group said.