U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government, Department of Justice.

Western Regional Children's Advocacy Center

Award Information

Award #
2016-CI-FX-K004
Funding Category
Competitive Discretionary
Location
Congressional District
Status
Closed
Funding First Awarded
2016
Total funding (to date)
$7,300,000

Description of original award (Fiscal Year 2016, $1,250,000)

The Western Regional Children's Advocacy Center (WRCAC) will provide training and technical assistance to develop and strengthen Children's Advocacy Centers (CACs) and Multidisciplinary Child Abuse Teams (MDTs) in the 13 states in the Western 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 Chadwick Center for Children and Families at Rady Children’s Hospital – San Diego (RCHSD) will manage the Western Regional Children’s Advocacy Center. The Chadwick Center is San Diego’s Child Advocacy Center with over 40 years’ experience in multidisciplinary child protection teamwork and over 30 years’ experience in large scale professional education on child abuse and multidisciplinary team investigation across the nation and around the globe. The Chadwick Center is a long standing, fully accredited member of the National Children’s Alliance (NCA), with decades of experience helping establish and expand multidisciplinary investigative teams and child advocacy centers in the United States and abroad. The Center benefits from a pool of experts in the field who will provide training and consultation throughout the western region.

The proposed WRCAC will help communities develop multidisciplinary teams and local programs, such as child advocacy centers, to better respond to child abuse and neglect, especially child sexual abuse, child sex trafficking, and severe physical abuse. The WRCAC will deliver training and technical assistance to strengthen existing investigative multidisciplinary team (MDT) programs, CACs, and state chapters in the 13 western states. The WRCAC will utilize distance learning and communication technology, social media, publications, and face-to-face training and technical assistance in a manner consistent with evidence-based and evidence-supported practices and the emerging field of implementation science. The WRCAC will formally reach out to the tribes of the western region to foster the expansion of the CAC model among American Indian and Native Alaskan communities while also helping to develop an improved culturally sensitive, multidisciplinary investigative team response in existing CACs serving American Indian and Alaskan Native children. The services of the WRCAC will be coordinated with OJJDP, other organizations supported by the Victims of Child Abuse Act, including the NCA, the other Regional CACs, the National Children’s Advocacy Center, the American Prosecutors Association, and related DOJ initiatives. The WRCAC will submit performance measure information as required by OJJDP. CA/NCF

Date Created: September 27, 2016