Children's Advocacy Center of Erie CountyChildren's Advocacy Center of Erie County
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Mission

Children are our community's most valuable and fragile resource. The Children's Advocacy Center of Erie County, Inc. is dedicated to the prevention of child abuse and the delivery of an immediate, effective, well-integrated community response. Our interventions will promote the recovery of each injured child, hold the abuser accountable, and improve safety for all children.

Vision

The Center will provide a child-friendly environment that welcomes abused children and non-offender family members and caregivers. Children will be interviewed at the Center. Various agencies will observe the interview simultaneously, thereby reducing the number of interviews and the amount of emotional stress. Multidisciplinary case conferences and care manager(s) will ensure coordinated care for the child.

The Children's Advocacy Center will achieve its mission by fostering effective relationships and processes among those community systems charged with a responsibility to respond to the needs of abused children. Processes will be streamlined, well-coordinated, child-focused, and measurable. Best practice standards for the investigation and prosecution of child abuse will be utilized. Outcomes and data will be maintained by the Center and used to analyze it in analyzing community trends in child abuse and to encourage community education initiatives.

The Center will generate resources and support for community leader development in all the disciplines that address child abuse. It will foster continued professional training, dissemination of information on best practices and national models, and strategies to support those front-line professionals investigating and prosecuting child abuse. The Center will recognize and reward individual and system efforts.

The Children's Advocacy Center of Erie County (CAC) is dedicated to the prevention of child abuse, and to the delivery of an immediate, effective, well-integrated community response when any child is harmed. A non-profit organization, the CAC opened its doors in June 2001. A guiding principle of the CAC is to decrease the amount of trauma to child victims during the course of an investigation, and to make sure that they receive the services they need to recover. Every effort is made to hold the offender accountable, and create a safer community.

The CAC provides a child-friendly facility in which investigative interviews can occur.

By encouraging all the professionals involved with the child to come to the Center, the child experiences fewer interviews and the care is more coordinated.

The CAC also provides multi-disciplinary staffings, referrals, education, and training that will enhance child abuse investigation and prosecution. The Center was created out of the efforts of those organizations in Erie that work with abused children, and it works closely with these agencies.

ObjectivesPicture of Mother and Daughter

The Children's Advocacy Center will:

  1. Improve the investigative interview process for children by: (a) ensuring that the resources of the Center are available for each interview and (b) providing a process that is child-friendly, skilled in addressing the developmental needs of children and committed to care management. Also, the interview will be conducted as close to the date that the child discloses abuse as possible.
  2. Define the processes that should occur throughout the system once child abuse is suspected or disclosed. Identify and incorporate national best practice standards into these processes and obtain a commitment from the following systems to implement the standards: law enforcement, prosecution, education, child protection, medical, and victim support/advocacy. Ensure the education of the individuals within these systems on the agreed upon processes.
  3. Create greater community awareness of local child abuse issues, as well as prevention and intervention strategies.
  4. Demonstrate professional excellence in continued organizational development and endeavors of the CAC.
  5. Assist the system in defining and implementing supports and assistance to professionals on the front-line of child abuse investigation and interventions to encourage career development and longevity.