{"id":59100,"date":"2026-05-02T17:47:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T17:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/59100\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T17:47:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T17:47:09","slug":"casa-kane-county-to-leave-geneva-courthouse-for-new-permanent-digs-shaw-local","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/59100\/","title":{"rendered":"CASA Kane County to leave Geneva courthouse for new permanent digs \u2013 Shaw Local"},"content":{"rendered":"

CASA Kane County plans to close on a property in June that will be its permanent new home after moving out of the Kane County Courthouse office in Geneva<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The purchase will be an office condominium in the Fox Valley with a closing in June, making the location public, and moving in by fall, Executive Director Jim Di Ciaula said. The nonprofit provides trained advocates for children moving through the court system. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve completed due diligence on a 5,000-square-foot office condominium that\u2019s within a five-mile radius of the Juvenile Justice Center, because it\u2019s important for us to be in close proximity to the courthouse,\u201d Di Ciaula said.<\/p>\n

At 5,000 square feet, the new location will be bigger than the current 4,074 square feet in Suite 430 at the Kane County Courthouse, 100 S. Third St., Geneva. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe square footage is deceiving, too \u2013 it depends on how it\u2019s arranged,\u201d Di Ciaula said. \u201cIt\u2019s a highly efficient setup that will not require us to do much in the way of construction. Limited. And that makes it very enticing. … No walls are coming down, no walls are going up, we do not need a new roof.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new site will have storage space below and parking.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are fortunate that a lot of furniture is going to remain in the property and we have many pieces that will fit and it will be like merging two households. And then we\u2019ll need a few things.\u201d<\/p>\n

The building is two stories and CASA will be one of two on the first floor.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will own our spot. It\u2019s less than 20% of the whole building. Another advantage of buying is that, as a charity nonprofit, we could apply for a real estate tax exemption … so that\u2019s very favorable in the buy,\u201d Di Ciaula said. \u201cIf you were leasing, we would have to pay it because it\u2019s being pushed down.\u201d<\/p>\n

CASA serves 600 to 650 children per year who are in foster care because of abuse or neglect, representing about 350 cases. <\/p>\n

Last year, 229 children returned to their families, were adopted or received guardianship.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a lot of kids. That\u2019s why we started the Circle of Care \u2013 How do we come together and change the trajectory we\u2019re on? \u2013 because we should be out of business,\u201d Di Ciaula said. \u201cThe reality is \u2013 like Judge Villa said \u2013 we\u2019re here and it\u2019s a sad reason. We\u2019re here and we\u2019re doing good work, but it\u2019s still too bad that we need to be here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Di Cuala was referring to CASA\u2019s annual Hands Around the Courthouse<\/a> event during April, which is Child Abuse Prevention Month. Kane County Chief Judge Robert Villa was one of the speakers.<\/p>\n

Circle of Care<\/a> is a new initiative launched this year, bringing services that address mental health, early prevention, housing, food instability and childcare together.<\/p>\n

Di Cuala said CASA will start a capital campaign called CASA Kane County Center for Hope in May or June to pay for the new office condo. <\/p>\n

The goal has not yet been set, he said. He said the capital campaign will also support CASA\u2019s future goals to enhance programming and advocacy work.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is being tested with donors that we\u2019ve done a bunch of testing on the message of the concept,\u201d Di Ciuala said.<\/p>\n

CASA lists assets of $6 million in its IRS filing. Di Ciuala said about half of that, $3 million, is from an endowment that does not allow it to be used for buying property.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen that endowment was set up, it was set up for long-term sustainability and it does a payout every year, usually around 4%, which helps support our operations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

CASA can\u2019t access the principal or the earnings for a building.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe other thing that we want to be really transparent about, is all of the fundraising done to date, it\u2019s always been directed towards programming and the services we provide to children,\u201d he said. \u201cWe want support on the building side. We have never said, \u2018Your money is going to support a building.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

According to its leases, CASA has paid $10 per year to the county for the space. <\/p>\n

CASA\u2019s move was also prompted by State\u2019s Attorney Jamie Mosser, who found that it was illegal for the county to lease courthouse space to a nonprofit \u2013 plus the county needs the space that CASA is currently in for its own needs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have no comment,\u201d Di Ciuala said. \u201cBut I will tell you, many cases are in courthouses across the state of Illinois. But two wrongs don\u2019t make a right.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an email, Mosser wrote that the statutes \u201care clear as day that a non-profit cannot be in a courthouse.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the attorney for the County, I have to provide legal advice to the County to protect them from lawsuits,\u201d Mosser wrote. \u201cIn this case, no matter the good work that CASA does, they cannot be housed in a courthouse.\u201d <\/p>\n

Mosser cited 55ILCS 5\/5-17001, which states, \u201cLeasing space in court house. Whenever there is space in the county court house not needed for county purposes, the county board may lease such space to the state or any court thereof, to any city, village, town, sanitary district or other municipal corporation for such period of time and upon such terms as may seem just and equitable to the board.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CASA Kane County plans to close on a property in June that will be its permanent new home…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59101,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[65,898,305,27439,1981],"class_list":{"0":"post-59100","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-geneva","8":"tag-geneva","9":"tag-kane-county","10":"tag-local","11":"tag-nonprofits","12":"tag-shaw-local-front-headlines"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116506240300656131","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59100\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}