It’s not often we make public statements about news events not directly related to our work of serving child victims of abuse. Yet what took place here in Washington, D.C., last week was no ordinary event. Just blocks from my house and to National Children’s Alliance headquarters here on Capitol Hill, a violent mob stormed the U.S. Capitol as lawmakers were in session to certify the election, killing one Capitol Police officer, Brian Sicknick, with a fire extinguisher. Since Wednesday’s event we have learned that another officer, Howie Liebengood, despondent over the Capitol breach, has tragic ..read more

Welcome to April. As I normally do in April, I want to focus on the fact that it is National Child Abuse Awareness Month—but this year, under these extraordinary circumstances, the designation takes on an even greater and more urgent significance. We know that, under the best of circumstances, it is challenging to protect the most vulnerable among us. We know how much coordination, communication, and collaboration it takes among our team members, within our communities, and with the children and families we serve to help them make the journey from victim to survivor to thriver. When the system ..read more

For Children’s Advocacy Centers (CACs), family engagement refers to the process of family members accepting a referral for mental health treatment, then attending and participating in that treatment to successful completion. CAC staff know the importance of mental health treatment to help children and families who have experienced trauma heal from that trauma.  We also know that there are barriers that interfere with families participating and successfully competing this treatment. Based on our CAC mission and our knowledge that treatment can help our clients move beyond the trauma of abu ..read more

The original mission of Children’s Advocacy Centers (CACs) was to improve a community’s response to the investigation of child abuse. The advances in our knowledge of trauma and the availability of mental health treatments effective in reducing the negative impact of trauma expanded the focus of CACs to include helping children and families heal. In support of this expanded focus, National Children’s Alliance (NCA) included access to and delivery of these evidence-based mental health services as part of our Mental Health Standard in the 2017 Standards for Accredited Members and has focuse ..read more

Every year, Child Abuse Prevention Month pushes us to focus on the ways in which we can engage our communities to better protect children—in the Children’s Advocacy Center (CAC) world, we say that the shared goal of our efforts is to work ourselves “out of a job.” We combine forces to unify our messages and speak with a louder voice so that everyone will listen. Together, we want to see stronger children, more protective adults, and engaged community members who prioritize keeping children safe. But we come up against deep knowledge gaps and fundamental misinformation about the nature of child ..read more

Children’s Advocacy Centers (CACs) work through the strength of partnership—no single professional or agency can counter child abuse on their own, and survivors need and deserve support when abuse comes to light. Being a good partner means being a good active listener, and active listening is the main medium in which CACs do their work. Forensic interviewers actively listen to children’s stories and help the multidisciplinary team (MDT) ask the questions they need to help an individual child. Advocates speak with families’ and listen for opportunities to meet their needs (safety, housing, tran ..read more

In some ways, legislative advocacy is like toilet paper: You don’t really think about it until it’s absolutely necessary. You usually forget to include it in your budget, it feels a little funny to talk about in public, and, frankly, you can never have enough of it. This wasn’t how I always felt. When I began as South Dakota’s Chapter director, leading the statewide movement of Children’s Advocacy Centers (CACs), I wasn’t exactly sure what all the fuss was about. Meet with my legislators? Really? The concept felt little more than obligatory—like the $20 bill my mother still sends me for my bir ..read more

The use of tele-health services—providing therapy over a computer—is changing the landscape of mental health and providing more opportunities to disseminate evidence-based treatments to underserved communities. CAC professionals in South Carolina or any state with a large number of rural counties know the many barriers faced by children and families trying to access mental health services. What’s more, families in urban areas also encounter many of the same barriers to treatment, like lack of transportation, work schedules, and the need for childcare. These barriers can make the idea of weekly ..read more

When I sat down to write this post, I had just returned home from visiting a child advocacy center after training their team on a new cloud-based video management solution. The CAC I visited conducts more than 2,000 child forensic interviews per year, and my mind was full with all the ways CACs can benefit from cloud technology. “What are you doing this morning, Mom?” my 9-year-old daughter Gabi asked. I told her that I was going to write an article about cloud security to help protect the privacy of kids like her and the wonderful people that help them. Me:      What should I call it? I was t ..read more

Animals are such agreeable friends―they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms.―George Eliot Throughout history, humans have relied on canines to assist in many tasks. Herding, guarding, scent work, and companionship are all duties that dogs have accepted and excelled at. I believe passionately in the human-animal bond, having witnessed firsthand the comfort that animals provide to people in need, as I imagine many Children’s Advocacy Center (CAC) professionals have. In my efforts to strengthen this bond for abused children, I learned there is a way to provide the support of a canine using ..read more