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Children's Advocacy Center of Delaware, use Donor Choice #9293.
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Our Mission
The mission of The Children’s Advocacy Center (CAC) is to reduce the devastating long-term effects that child abuse has on children, their families and society through
immediate, coordinated, child focused services, education, and advocacy.
Our Vision
A world without child abuse.
About the Children's Advocacy Center of Delaware (CAC)
Children's Advocacy Centers
are found in communities throughout the country in order to help
children and their families who have been (or who may have been) victims
of child abuse.
In Delaware, there is a
Children's Advocacy Center in Wilmington, Dover, and Georgetown.
We're a comprehensive, child-focused program
based in a facility that allows law enforcement, child protection
professionals, prosecutors, and the mental health and medical
communities to work together when intervening in child abuse cases. The main goal of all CACs
is to make sure that children are not further victimized by systems
designed to protect them. We accomplish this by working together
as a multidisciplinary team and interviewing children with trained
forensic interviewers in a manner that is legally sound, following
nationally accepted "best practices," and minimizing duplicative
and unnecessary interviews.
History of The Children's Advocacy
Center of Delaware
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1980's |
- Child abuse rose to the forefront
in America
- There was a mass increase in
reported child abuse and neglect cases to local child
protection services
- Children were forced to re-tell
and thus re-live their stories time and time again.
- Due to separate agencies and
fragmented services, there was a re-victimization of these
abused children from the very system that was attempting to
help.
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1985 |
- The
National Children's
Advocacy Center is founded in Huntsville, Alabama.
- This center met the needs of
abused children in a warm, non-threatening environment.
- The focus is on the child victim
and his or her family.
- The Center has a Multidisciplinary
Team working together to respond to child abuse in a
coordinated manner.
- The Children's Center has become a
model for the country and the world.
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1994 |
- A community task force was formed
to create better ways to serve abused children and their
families in Delaware.
- This task force spend two years in
fact-finding and review.
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1996 |
- A recommendation by the task force
provided for Delaware to establish a children's advocacy
center where expert teams would give abused children
coordinated services in a child-friendly setting.
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1996 |
- First Delaware Children's Advocacy
Center began operating in New Castle County.
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1999 |
- Second Delaware CAC opened in
Milford, providing services for Kent and Sussex county.
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2003 |
- The CAC opened centers in
Georgetown and Dover. There is now a Center in each county
in the state, to provide equal access to all children in
Delaware.
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Today |
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