Southern Regional Children's Advocacy Center

The Victims of Child Abuse Act of 1990, as amended, authorizes OJJDP to support the development of multidisciplinary teams and children's advocacy centers in local communities to improve their response to child abuse. It specifically directs the creation of four Regional Children's Advocacy Centers throughout the United States to provide training and technical assistance to local communities for this purpose. This grant will allow the Regional Children's Advocacy Center (RCAC) to continue to increase the number of facility-based children's advocacy centers (CACs) in its respective U.S. Census region. These CACs will provide coordinated and comprehensive multidisciplinary services to children and families who are victims of abuse and neglect. Regional Children's Advocacy Centers will target underserved areas in order to introduce the CAC concept and establish CACs, strengthen existing CACs and leverage resources through collaborative projects. These goals will be accomplished through development and delivery of technical assistance and training projects, and through collaborative efforts with OJJDP, other VOCA-funded programs, state CAC organizations and individual communities. This program is authorized by the Victims of Child Abuse Act, 42 USC Section 13001b. The National Children's Advocacy Center will provide training and technical assistance to develop and strengthen Children's Advocacy Centers (CACs) and Multidisciplinary Child Abuse Teams (MDTs) in the sixteen states in the southern region. The core components of this project include national, regional and state conferences; information dissemination; on-site technical assistance and team training; multidisciplinary and discipline specific training; use of innovative technologies; mentoring of CAC programs; CAC leadership development; and chapter development to strengthen state networks and develop new programs. NCA/NCF