Children’s Advocacy Center
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The Sexual Assault Crisis & Support Center has established, with the support, input and collaboration of a multi-disciplinary team a new program—“The Children’s Advocacy Center of Kennebec & Somerset Counties program.”
Overview:
The Children’s Advocacy Center (CAC) is a program of the Sexual Assault Crisis and Support Center serving Kennebec and Somerset Counties, using evidence-based best practices, will provide a safe, neutral and child-centered place for timely and coordinated evaluation/response of children following an allegation of sexual abuse. Our aspiration is, as a collective multi-disciplinary team initiative, to provide early intervention in an effort to minimize the trauma of those which the CAC will serve through a streamlined, non-repetitious and timely evaluation process and on-going support for children and their non-offending family members in the aftermath of sexual abuse allegations. For this initiative we have interagency agreements with members representing local and statewide law enforcement; prosecution; department of health & human services; mental & medical health providers; advocacy groups and other social service providers. Instead of the child victim and families navigating a difficult and sometimes confusing system of multiple and repetitive interviews the diverse system providers will be brought to the child. The Children’s Advocacy Center Program is modeled on the simple but powerful concept of coordination between community agencies and professionals involved in intervention systems.
The Mission:
The mission of the Children’s Advocacy Center of Kennebec & Somerset Counties is to provide a safe, neutral and child-centered place for coordinated evaluation of children following an allegation of sexual abuse. Using evidence-based best-practices, the CAC multi-disciplinary team members are committed to the minimization of trauma through a streamlined, non-repetitious and timely evaluation process. Accessible, on-going support for children and their non-offending family members/legal guardian will always be of paramount importance to the CAC team.
Our Purpose:
The purpose of the Children’s Advocacy Center Program is to provide and promote closer coordination, communication and collaboration among child abuse response agencies in order to better serve children, their families, and the community in the aftermath of child sexual abuse.
In recognition and deep gratitude we would like to thank the following for their in-kind and financial support of this program:
- All of the time and input from the above listed partners and those who participated in the community assessment & feasibility study that brought this to the forefront as a community need.
- MaineGeneral Medical Center
- The Agnes M. Lindsay Trust Foundation
- The Northeast Regional Children’s Advocacy Center
- The National Children’s Alliance
- Peter McAvoy, Sr.
- Amcomm Wireless
