The Child Advocacy Center is
Committed to:
- Reducing the trauma experienced by children who have been abused.
- Providing a child-friendly, safe environment where a child's voice
is heard and respected.
- Coordinating sexual assault medical examinations and treatment.
- Holding offenders accountable.
- Supporting the state-mandated Child Protective Investigative Team
as it investigates all reported cased of severe child abuse.
- Creating programs and community education focused on prevention
and early intervention of child abuse.
- Empowering non-offending parents to protect their children.
The Mission of The Center:
- To heal the pain of child abuse.
The Child Advocacy Center of the Ninth Judicial District offers the following services to severely physically and sexually abused children between the ages of 3-17 residing in Loudon, Meigs, Morgan and Roane Counties. The following staff are employed by the CAC:
Forensic Interviewer – The Forensic Interviewer has received specialized training that enables
her to interview victims and obtain information in a non-threatening or non-leading manner.
Victim Services Specialist – This position works with the non-offending caregivers as to the role of the CAC and the legal system. She accompanies the victim to the hearing, familiarizes the victim and the family with the courthouse and the prosecution process.
Family Advocate – This position works with drug-endangered children, priority given to children having been impacted by the use and/or manufacturing of methamphetamines. The Family Advocate works with the caregivers as to reduce out-of-home placements, irrational behavior displayed by the caregivers due to active addiction, and to instigate positive change based on tools for successful parenting, time management, budgeting, and treatment for drug/alcohol dependence.
Therapist (2) – This position works with the client and the client’s caregivers. She offers support, education and coping skills for the client as well as the non-offending caregivers and adult survivors. Also, the Therapist provides community education related to child abuse, community support groups, school education/training and inter-agency collaboration and coordinates our school-based curriculum, Stop Child Abuse and Neglect (SCAN).
Administrative Assistant – Provides support to the Executive Director, staff and board of directors. This position assumes typical administrative duties and interacts with all clients as they become acquainted with the CAC.
Executive Director – The Executive Director is responsible for day-to-day running of the program, fiscal management, seeking, securing and implementation of grants, community education/support groups, program changes that will expedite services and improve service delivery, directly reports to the board of directors and member of the Child Protective Investigative Team.
Medical Services- Forensic Medical Examinations are performed by a retired pediatrician and registered nurse that have undergone specialized training for this type of evaluation. Both professionals donate their time to the CAC.
Facts About the Child Advocacy
Center
The Area Served:
- The geographical area covers 1307 square miles, basically rural
area.
- The population of the four counties is 121,839 (2000 Census).
- 22% of the population is under the age of 18.
- Three of the Four counties served have a poverty level that is
higher than the state average.
- Roane County: 15% of population lives in poverty.
- Meigs and Morgan Counties: 19% of the population of each
county lives in poverty.
- NOTE: Links between poverty and child abuse, particularly physical
abuse, is well documented by research.
The Children Served:
Kids First Child Advocacy Center of the Ninth Judicial District serves children that have been identified by the Department of Children’s Services as having been severely physically and/or sexually abused.
In 2009 Kids First, CAC, provided services to 370 children which is an increase from those served in 2008. The CAC received more than 2,100 referrals from the Department of Children’s Services for our judicial district. Our Therapist provided therapy and support to more than 270 children and their caregivers over 170 individual therapy sessions. We offered 17 forensic medical examinations and conducted 240 forensic interviews. Through grants obtained by Kids First Child Advocacy Center of the Ninth Judicial District and compliments of the Good Neighbors Shoppe of Lenoir City, we have been able to provide an annual district-wide training to our child abuse investigators, department of children’s services (CPS) caseworkers, the District Attorney’s Office, Juvenile Justice Officers and the staff of Kids First designed to improve communication among team members, heighten awareness of physical abuse, detect discrepancies among perpetrators, and to rejuvenate the team members that investigate, protect and prosecute offenders of children.
In 2009 Child Advocacy Centers in Tennessee:
*Provided services to 18,475 children
*Forensic Interviewers conducted 6,277 child interviews.
*Of these new victims 11,295 were female and 6,942 were male.
*13,439 of the victims were under the age of 12 years
*Of the new victims, 11,500 of the children were sexual abuse victims, while 2,388 were victims of physical abuse.
*8,444 of these victims were abused by their parent/stepparent or relative
**31 centers reporting
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