Children’s advocacy centers are community-based, child-friendly, and trauma-informed organizations that coordinate a multidisciplinary response to child maltreatment allegations.
Our sixteen member children’s advocacy centers deliver a best practice model that bring together in one location: child protective services investigators, law enforcement, forensic interviewers, prosecutors, family advocates, and medical and mental health professionals to provide a coordinated, comprehensive response to victims and their caregivers. Children’s advocacy centers provide a safe, neutral environment for children and their families where the child’s well-being is top priority.
At a children’s advocacy center, children can speak to a forensic interviewer who is trained to understand child development, how to manage bias, and is knowledgeable in addressing secondary trauma and other best practices for interviewing children. This multidisciplinary team approach results in better outcomes for child abuse investigations.
Why CAC’s?
Abused children had to navigate a complex web of organizations to report abuse and receive the proper therapeutic care before child advocacy centers were established. Professionals working on the case were frequently ill-prepared or untrained to handle child abuse cases, and they were regrettably learning how to handle these child victims on the job. Families frequently became dissatisfied with the system and stopped participating, which prevented the offender from being found guilty and the child from getting well.
The child advocate center model’s primary advantage is that case investigations are mapped out from the start. Children receive evidence-based therapy sooner, families obtain appropriate referrals for the right medical checks, fewer cases are missed, they start earlier, and the CAC collaborative model minimizes resource duplication. For the sake of the child and their non-offending family members, the collaborative approach is crucial in ensuring that all services are delivered at the best possible standard and that the team as a whole operates effectively.
A child can share their story in one location and at one time at the local child advocacy centers. The model aims to minimize trauma to the victim by bringing together doctors, police, counselors, and child advocates as opposed to having them switch between them. Children can feel secure sharing their story in a welcoming, kid-friendly environment at child advocacy centers. The main objective of our interdisciplinary teams, which are composed of qualified experts, is to lessen the strain on kids and aid in their recovery.