The purpose of this award is to continue to support the State of Alaska Division of Family and Youth Services (DFYS) to develop coordinated and comprehensive child abuse investigations and interventions in communities throughout the State. To achieve this goal, DFYS will provide subgrants to selected communities in order to develop and expand a Children+s Advocacy Center (CAC) in their community. Currently, there are six operating CACs in Alaska; Alaska C.A.R.E.S. in Anchorage, The Children's Place in the Matanuska-Susitna Valley, the Southeast Alaska Family Evaluation Child Advocacy Center (safe) in Juneau, Stevie's Place in Fairbanks, Tundra Women's Coalition in Bethel, and Kawerak, Inc in Nome.
During the past six months of operations, the Child Advocacy Centers had seen over 1300 children at their centers.
Three programs are proposed to be funded through the FY04 Congressional Earmark program.
Child Advocacy Centers - six are currently operational in the State of Alaska with significant contribution from OJJDP. These funds will assist the CAC's to continue their valuable service of providing a child friendly environment for forensic interviews and medial examinations for children suspected of sexual and/or physical abuse.
Multi-Disciplinary Team Development - two programs will be funded in rural communities to develop and train MDT+s to improve their coordinated response to child sexual and physical abuse.
Dual Track - one program will be funded to provide intervention services to families and children who have come to the attention of the Division of Youth Services (DFYS) through low priority reports of harm.
These three programs are all compatible in their approach to addressing and reducing child maltreatment and abuse.
The goals for each CAC are as follows: 1) coordinate multi-disciplinary team child abuse investigations through implementations through implementation of a CAC; 2) improve short and long-term outcomes for children and families referred for suspected abuse and neglect; and 3) improve community awareness and detection of child abuse and neglect.
NCA/NCF