The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) administers funding and programs to coordinate the Federal government's response to abused and victimized children. These resources support a range of activities designed to meet the needs of victimized children and their families. Activities include direct services, training and technical assistance, capacity building and interagency coordination. The statutory authority is the Victims of Child Abuse (VOCA) Act, 42 U.S.C. sec. 13001 et seq.
The VOCA Regional Childrens Advocacy Centers (CAC) program supports four Regional Childrens Advocacy Centers, one situated within each of the four U.S. Census regions. The goal of the program is to provide training, technical assistance, and information services to both developing and established multidisciplinary teams (MDTS), local CACS, and state chapter organizations of CACS that respond to child abuse and neglect. Pursuant to section 213 of the VOCA Act (codified at 42 USC 13001b), the four Regional Childrens Advocacy Centers were established to: 1) assist communities in developing child-focused, community-oriented, facility-based programs to improve the resources available to child victims and families; 2) provide support for non-offending family members; 3) enhance coordination among community agencies and professionals involved in the intervention, prevention, prosecution, and investigation systems that respond to child abuse cases; and 4) train physicians and other healthcare and mental healthcare professionals in the multidisciplinary approach to child abuse cases.
The National Childrens Advocacy Center operates the Southern Regional Childrens Advocacy Center. The states included in the Southern Region are: Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia. The National Children's Advocacy Center will provide training and technical assistance to develop and strengthen CACs and 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 and learning platforms; mentoring of CAC programs; CAC leadership development; and chapter development to strengthen state networks and develop new programs. Under this project, the National Childrens Advocacy Center will continue to focus on innovative development, delivery, and evaluation of services and on working collaboratively with other VOCA programs. Specifically, the National Childrens Advocacy Center will: 1) assist communities in the Southern Region in developing and strengthening the multidisciplinary approach to the investigation, prosecution, and treatment of child abuse cases; 2) increase the number of communities utilizing the CAC model to respond to child abuse and expand their reach to children who have been commercially sexually exploited and/or exposed to violence (Defending Childhood Initiatives);
3) assist State Chapter organizations in the Southern Region to support the network of CACs within their respective states; and
4) increase coordination among VOCA programs in order to best utilize their combined resources.
NCA/NCF
