National Subgrants Program

National Children’s Alliance is a not-for-profit membership organization and accrediting body for the nation’s Children’s Advocacy Centers (CACs). A Children’s Advocacy Center is a child-friendly facility in which law enforcement, child protection, prosecution, mental health, medical, and victim advocacy professionals work together to investigate abuse, help children heal from abuse, and hold offenders accountable. NCA was first federally funded in 1993 to develop and expand Children’s Advocacy Centers across the country through a national sub-grants program.  Since that time, NCA has administered more than $200 million in federal funds for this purpose and has developed more than 924 Children’s Advocacy Centers across the United States.

The populations to be served through this program are victims of all types of child maltreatment and their families. NCA will continue to provide targeted sub-grant categories (i.e. Program Development, Provision of Core Direct CAC Services, Program Improvement/Meeting National Standards) to support the further expansion of CAC services into underserved areas including rural, tribal, and remote locations. These funds will also be used for existing Children’s Advocacy Centers to expand services involving physical abuse, children with problematic sexual behaviors, and to promulgate evidenced based treatments no matter where a child lives.

National Children’s Alliance proposes to continue the success of this program through this proposal for the OJJDP 2021 VOCA Children’s Advocacy Centers National Subgrant Program by:

Funding new and existing local CACs, state chapters, and MDTs through competitive sub-grants to maximize the reach and quality of direct services and local CAC operations.
Developing and implementing a national funding strategy for Chapter Core Services to CACs.
Continuing to translate evidence-based treatments to broader practice by expanding the range of evidence-based mental health services beyond those focused primarily on sexual abuse, to other forms of maltreatment and trauma.
Ensuring consistent high-quality service delivery across the CAC network.
 

Examples of planned objectives to accomplish these goals include:

Developing a national peer review process to evaluate applications for funding.
Collecting and analyzing outcomes data from grantee annual projects.
Providing subgrants for training, including cultural adaptation for special populations.
Collaborating with VOCAA Partners to implement the VOCAA Partners 5-year Plan to improve and expand access to CAC services.
Using the Outcome Measurement System (OMS) to inform, develop and implement national training and technical assistance focused on reducing barriers to program advancement and improving the quality of services to abused children in existing or developing CACs.

National Children’s Alliance is a not-for-profit membership organization and accrediting body for the nation’s Children’s Advocacy Centers (CACs). A CAC is a child-friendly facility in which law enforcement, child protection, prosecution, mental health, medical, and victim advocacy professionals work together to investigate abuse, help children heal from abuse, and hold offenders accountable. NCA was first federally funded in 1993 to develop and expand CACs across the country through a national sub-grants program.  Since that time, NCA has administered more than $200 million in federal funds for this purpose and has developed more than 950 CACs across the United States.

The populations to be served through this program are victims of all types of child maltreatment and their families. NCA will continue to provide targeted sub-grant categories (i.e. Program Development, Provision of Core Direct CAC Services, Program Improvement/Meeting National Standards, Expanding Reach and Access to CACs, Equipment and Technology, Chapter Core Services) to support the further expansion of CAC services into underserved areas including rural, tribal, and remote locations. These funds will also be used for existing CACs to expand services involving physical abuse, children with problematic sexual behaviors, and to promulgate evidenced-based treatments no matter where a child lives.

National Children’s Alliance proposes to continue the success of this program through this proposal for the OJJDP 2023 National Subgrant Program by:

Funding new and existing local CACs, state chapters, and MDTs through competitive sub-grants to maximize the reach and quality of direct services and local CAC operations.
Developing and implementing a national funding strategy for Chapter Core Services to CACs.
Continuing to translate consistent, inclusive, evidence-based practice across the field by strengthening the national standards of accreditation and addressing service inequities and gaps.
Ensuring consistent high-quality service delivery across the CAC network.
 

Examples of planned objectives to accomplish these goals include:

Developing a national peer review process to evaluate applications for funding.
Developing systems and processes for the provision of training and technical assistance to awardees for grants management and compliance.
Providing subgrants to expand the services to unserved or underserved communities, including rural, tribal, frontier and diverse populations.
Partnering with the National Center for Sexual Behavior of Youth for training and to support CAC implementation of services for youth with problematic sexual behaviors. 
Working in partnership with CACs, Chapters, RCACs and other national stakeholders to strengthen the CAC and Chapter workforce and business practices.