The Northeast Regional Children's Advocacy Center (NRCAC) will provide training and technical assistance to develop and strengthen Children's Advocacy Centers (CACs) and Multidisciplinary Child Abuse Teams (MDTs) in the states that comprise the Northeast 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.
The Philadelphia Childrens Alliance will operate the NRCAC and will provide training and technical assistance, timely information and coordination to develop Childrens Advocacy Centers (CACs) and Multidisciplinary Child Abuse Teams (MDTs). Through this project, the NRCAC will participate in and support national and regional partnerships to produce training conferences; ninety on-site technical assistance sessions in team and protocol development; discipline specific training; use of innovative technologies; mentoring of teams; CAC leadership development; and chapter development to build capacity to support local programs and teams. The program will be evaluated through participant feedback and data collection of training and TA provided, programs established and children served, and required VOCA performance measures will be reported to OJJDP via DCTAT.
The NRCAC will work with state chapters to establish MDTs in underserved areas, including tribal CACs and those that serve American Indian and Alaska Native children and communities, and will develop protocols essential to coordinating investigations and providing treatment. It will assist established MDT teams to develop facility-based programs with strong interdisciplinary partnerships including medical, mental health and victim advocacy partners and services. Combining national and regional training, site-specific technical assistance, leadership development, and strategic partnerships with state networks, it will develop MDTs and strengthen CACs. The National Childrens Alliance (NCA), Regional CAC partners, other VOCA grantees and state chapters will provide consistent training and technical assistance resulting in an increase in the number of children and families that receive evidence-based treatment in a coordinated process that reduces trauma to children. Success will be documented by numbers of professionals trained, increases in the number of CACs achieving or sustaining NCA accreditation, increases in the number of MDTs that achieve associate member status and the number of programs that increase the number of children served and the percentage of children that receive a full complement of services, medical and mental health services. CA/NCF
