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Midwest Regional Children's Advocacy Center 2018 VOCAA Training and Technical Assistance Grant

Award Information

Award #
2019-CI-FX-K004
Funding Category
Competitive Discretionary
Location
Congressional District
Status
Past Project Period End Date
Funding First Awarded
2019
Total funding (to date)
$8,750,000

Description of original award (Fiscal Year 2019, $1,250,000)

The OJJDP FY 2019 Victims of Child Abuse Act(VOCA) Regional Children’s Advocacy Centers (RCAC) program provides funding to support four regional centers – one situated within each of the four U.S. Census regions – that (1) help to build and establish multidisciplinary teams, local programs, and state chapter organizations that respond to child abuse and neglect and (2) deliver training and technical assistance that strengthen existing multidisciplinary teams, programs, and state chapter organizations. This program is authorized pursuant to the Victims of Child Abuse Act, 34 U.S.C. §20303.

The Midwest Regional Children’s Advocacy Center’s (MRCAC) mission is to improve the community response to child abuse through strategic leadership, collaboration and capacity building with the vision that all kids and all families will have access to a strong team of highly qualified professionals for the response to and healing from child abuse. The target populations MRCAC serves are the multidisciplinary teams (MDTs), Children’s Advocacy Centers (CACs), and state Chapter organizations located in the 12-state Midwest region. To achieve its mission MRCAC had developed the following goals: 1) increase access to and quality of CAC and MDT response to child abuse in the Midwest, 2) MDTs and CACs will effectively serve American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) youth, youth with problematic sexual behaviors (YPSB) and the commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) with trauma-informed and culturally appropriate interventions, 3) MDT professionals will have access to affordable, cost-effective and high-quality training, technical assistance and resources to enhance the provision of care to child abuse victims, 4) state chapters will be recognized as a leader and invaluable resource in their respective state for training, technical assistance and advocacy, and 5) all training, technical assistance and resource development to advance the national response to child abuse will be implemented in a coordinated fashion among the VOCA Program grantees and other key national stakeholders. To address the goals set forth in this proposal, MRCAC will implement evidence-based training and technical assistance activities including, but not limited to: outreach to underserved communities, training to improve the response to commercial sexual exploitation of children, foundational medical training and web-based continuous quality improvement activities, continuing education webinar series for all MDT professionals, organizational capacity training and customized technical assistance as requested. To ensure the greatest impact and non-duplicative service delivery, MRCAC will coordinate and collaborate with the robust network of local, regional and national entities working to improve the national response to child abuse.

CA/NCF

Date Created: September 16, 2019