The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) administers funding and programs to coordinate the Federal government's response to abused and victimized children. These resources support a range of activities designed to meet the needs of victimized children and their families. Activities include direct services, training and technical assistance, capacity building and interagency coordination. The statutory authority is the Victims of Child Abuse Act, 42 U.S.C. sec. 13001 et seq.
The VOCA Regional Childrens Advocacy Centers program supports four Regional Childrens Advocacy Centers, one situated within each of the four U.S. Census regions. The goal of the program is to provide a full complement of training, technical assistance, and information services to both developing and established multidisciplinary teams, local childrens advocacy centers, and state chapter organizations of childrens advocacy centers that respond to child abuse and neglect. Pursuant to section 213 of the Victims of Child Abuse Act (VOCA) (codified at 42 USC 13001b), the four Regional Childrens Advocacy Centers were established to: 1) assist communities in developing child-focused, community-oriented, facility-based programs to improve the resources available to child victims and families; 2) provide support for non-offending family members; 3) enhance coordination among community agencies and professionals involved in the intervention, prevention, prosecution, and investigation systems that respond to child abuse cases; and 4) train physicians and other healthcare and mental healthcare professionals in the multidisciplinary approach to child abuse cases.
Childrens Health Care operates the Midwest Regional Childrens Advocacy Center. The states included in the Midwest Region are: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. Children's Health Care will provide training and technical assistance to develop and strengthen Children's Advocacy Centers (CACs) and Multidisciplinary Child Abuse Teams (MDTs) in 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. Specifically, this project will sustain affordable, accessible and cost-effective online training and technical assistance initiatives and provide the ability to create new and innovative ways of reaching the target population. it will implement a variety of evidence-based training and technical assistance activities including, but not limited to; web- based case review and peer review, EduNet webinar series, online medical specialty trainings, web-based medical expert review and quality improvement, chapter development grants and individualized technical assistance upon request. NCA/NCF
