Children's Advocacy Centers and MDTs
Many Definitions of a CAC:
- Children’s Advocacy Centers are community-based facilities providing a winning solution to caring for victims of severe child abuse.
- What makes the Children’s Advocacy Center model so effective is a unique multi-disciplinary community response to severe child abuse by enabling law enforcement, prosecutors, child protective services, and the medical and mental health professions to work together as a collaborative team to investigate and prosecute cases of child sexual abuse. As a result, CAC programs work to minimize trauma, break the cycle of abuse and provide communities with an added bonus: increased prosecution rates for perpetrators.
- By recognizing the special needs for children, CAC programs work to minimize trauma, break the cycle of abuse and provide communities with an added bonus: increased prosecution rates for perpetrators.
- National Children’s Alliance (NCA) is a 501C (3) non-profit organization that promotes and supports communities in providing a coordinated investigation and comprehensive response to child victims of abuse. NCA provides national accreditation to Children’s Advocacy Centers (CACs), community-based facilities providing a best practice solution to caring for victims of severe child abuse.
- Children’s Advocacy Centers are community partnerships dedicated to a coordinated team approach by professionals pursuing the truth in child abuse investigations. By bring together professionals from law enforcement, criminal justice, child protective services, victim advocacy agencies and the medical and mental health communities, CACs provide comprehensive services for child victims and their families.
- Children’s Advocacy Centers aren’t focused on suffering, they are focused on solutions.
- For 20 years, the Children’s Advocacy Center (CAC) model has been a beacon of hope for abused children throughout the nation, providing comprehensive services in one community-based facility. Necessary medical, emotional, legal, investigative, and victim advocacy services exist in one child friendly location – ensuring that children are not further victimized by the systems intended to protect them.
New Jersey Multi-Disciplinary Teams (MDT's)
Each of New Jersey's 21 counties has a fully functioning MDT