Midwest Regional Children’s Advocacy Center OJJDP FY 2016 VOCA Program Application

This program furthers the Department's mission by providing grants and cooperative agreements for training and technical assistance to organizations that OJJDP designates.

To achieve its mission the Midwest Regional Children's Advocacy Center (MRCAC) has developed the following goals; 1) every child abuse victim in the Midwest region will have access to an accredited children's advocacy center (CAC) with a responsive multi-disciplinary team (MDT), 2) American Indian and Alaska Native children exposed to violence will receive a coordinated multidisciplinary and culturally appropriate response in both native and non-native communities, 3) multidisciplinary professionals will have access to affordable, cost-effective and high-quality training and resources to enhance the provision of care to child abuse victims, 4) state chapters will be recognized as a leader and invaluable resource in their respective state for training, technical assistance and advocacy, and 5) all training, technical assistance and resource development to advance the national response to child abuse will be implemented in a coordinated fashion among the Victims of Child Abuse Act (VOCA) Program grantees and other key national stakeholders. To address the goals set forth in this proposal, MRCAC will implement evidence-based training and technical assistance activities including, but not limited to; outreach to underserved communities, training to improve the response to commercial sexual exploitation of children, foundational medical training and web-based continuous quality improvement activities, continuing education webinar series for all MDT professionals, organizational capacity training and customized technical assistance as requested. CA/NCF

This program furthers the Department's mission by providing grants and cooperative agreements for training and technical assistance to organizations that OJJDP designates.

The Midwest Regional Children's Advocacy Center (MRCAC) will provide training and technical assistance to develop and strengthen Children's Advocacy Centers (CACs) and Multidisciplinary Child Abuse Teams (MDTs) in the 12 states that comprise the Midwest 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.

MRCAC, which is operated by the Children's Health Care, Inc., has developed the following goals for this grant award: 1) every child abuse victim in the Midwest region will have access to an Accredited CAC with a responsive MDT; 2) American Indian and Alaska Native children exposed to violence will receive a coordinated multidisciplinary and culturally appropriate response in both native and non-native communities; 2) multidisciplinary professionals will have access to affordable, cost-effective, and high-quality training and resources to enhance the provision of care to child abuse victims; 4) state chapters will be recognized as a leader and invaluable resource in their respective state for training, technical assistance, and advocacy; and 5) all training, technical assistance and resource development to advance the national response to child abuse will be implemented in a coordinated fashion among the Victims of Child Abuse Act (VOCA) Program grantees and other key national stakeholders. CA/NCF