FOOTHILLS CHILD ADVOCACY CENTER

The earlier that child abuse is stopped and that child victims and their families receive services, the more likely that the children will heal and recover and grow up to be healthy and productive members of society. Foothills Child Advocacy Center envisions a unified and just community whose members are knowledgeable about and invested in assuring that all child victims receive the benefit of a range of services available in the community. Foothills' mission is to provide a coordinated system of effective response and intervention to children who have been victimized. Foothills' goals are to minimize the trauma of child victims, promote their healing, and ensure their safety.

Foothills directly addresses these goals by providing a culturally sensitive, coordinated system of effective response and intervention for alleged child victims of abuse, neglect, or violence and their non-offending caregivers in a safe, child-friendly setting. This response is achieved through the Multidisciplinary Team (MDT)/Forensic Assessment and Public Education and Outreach Programs.

Through the MDT/Forensic Assessment Program, Foothills:
-Provides a child-friendly, safe and neutral location in which Law Enforcement and Child Protective Services may conduct and observe child forensic interviews and the non-offending parents/caregivers may receive support; ​
-Coordinates the Charlottesville and Albemarle Child Abuse Multidisciplinary Team of 14 local government and nonprofit agencies to increase communication and mutual accountability, reduce duplication of services, and help ensure that children are safe and that their needs are met;
-Assists other MDTs in surrounding localities in a similar fashion; ​
-Conducts coordinated forensic interviews that reduce the number of times a child is interviewed and so reduces the child’s trauma, while at the same time gathering accurate information that will help to keep the child safe;
-Works to ensure that the child receives forensic medical evaluations and appropriate medical care;
-Provides non-offending caregivers immediate crisis intervention, including safety planning, risk and needs assessments, and trauma screening;
-Provides non-offending caregivers referrals and ongoing support to help them provide safe, healing environments for their children and reduce the risk of the child’s re-victimization; and
-Advocates for best practices in child abuse investigations and treatment.

Through the Public Education and Outreach Program, Foothills increases community understanding of the ways to prevent and stop abuse by providing training to adults that equips them to help keep kids safe. Doing so is crucial because national research shows that over 30 percent of children will never tell ANYONE about their abuse, and many will at first deny that the abuse happened. It’s up to adults to recognize the signs of abuse and to be the voice for child victims.

Foothills has offered nationally recognized Stewards of Children training on how to prevent, identify, and respond to child sexual abuse since 2010 and Stand Up for Kids!, a training for mandated reporters on how to recognize and respond to child abuse and neglect since 2013. Foothills also regularly offers training opportunities for the MDT professionals and other customized training upon request.

Foothills’ mission is accomplished by utilizing the nationally recognized, evidence-based National Child Advocacy Center (NCAC) model that seeks to reduce trauma to child victims through the Multidisciplinary Team (MDT) approach. The Child Advocacy Center model is considered best practice for allegations of criminal child maltreatment and has been heralded by the U.S. Department of Justice Office for Victims of Crime for improving services to child victims. In communities with a child advocacy center, there is improved investigation by law enforcement, increased use of child forensic interviewing, and increased likelihood of having a medical examination (Cross et al, 2008; http://www.unh.edu/ccrc/pdf/CV136.pdf). Providing trauma-informed child abuse and neglect investigative and family support services is a fundamental purpose of the child advocacy center model and essential to reducing trauma for these children, ensuring their safety, and promoting their healing (Jones et al, 2007; http://www.unh.edu/ccrc/pdf/cv124.pdf).

Foothills has established strong local, regional, and statewide networks that support its mission and goals. Since 2006, Foothills has coordinated the Charlottesville and Albemarle MDT and provided courtesy services to the surrounding localities. In 2014, legislation was passed by the Virginia General Assembly that required each locality to have a child abuse MDT and which led to requests for Foothills to provide information about the MDT process. Foothills is now a member of the MDTs in Buckingham, Fluvanna, Greene, Madison, and Nelson Counties. The MDTs consider Foothills essential to child maltreatment investigations and treatment, as evidenced by the increasing number of case referrals, from 77 in FY 2007 to 255 in FY 2021. Signed written protocols and inter-agency agreements govern the MDTs.

Foothills was fully accredited by the National Children’s Alliance in 2011 and fully re-accredited in 2017, which means that Foothills is recognized as having achieved a level of multidisciplinary collaboration and coordinated service delivery that significantly improves the experience and well-being of children who are subject to child abuse intervention.

A significant role of a child advocacy center is to ensure that MDT members receive training in current best practices. Foothills has provided over 5,000 hours of training for MDT members and local professionals since 2006.

Since its founding in 2006 through FY 2018, Foothills Child Advocacy Center has provided:
• A safe, child-friendly environment for more than 2,500 children and their families in the Charlottesville and Albemarle area.
• More than 3,000 legally sound forensic interviews that reduce child re-traumatization and gather accurate information.
• More than 35,000 services to the families, which helped them to provide a safe and healing environment for their children.
• Coordination of 14 local agencies who work together in the best interest of the child and who have together conducted
• More than 6,000 case reviews to be sure that the children’s needs are met.
• Assistance to the MDTs of Albemarle, Charlottesville, Buckingham, Fluvanna, Greene, Louisa, Madison, Nelson, and Orange Counties and participation in their case review meetings.
• Education and training on child abuse issues and how to prevent and stop child abuse to more than 6,000 adults.
• Medical Forensic Exams for children who have experienced physical abuse
• Mental Health services free of charge to all Foothills clients

We are focused on increasing our Mental Health services to meet the growing needs in our community and to reduce waiting times for the children. We also launched the Child Victims Health Care Access Program and have contracted with a pediatrician to provide medical services on site.

Foothills employs four full-time staff members and six part-time staff members. We expanded the facility space in July 2018, finished renovation on the second floor, and moved staff offices upstairs. The first-floor renovation, which enlarged and improved direct services spaces, was completed at the end of FY 2019.

Foothills continues to broaden its donor base and increase the amount of private contributions. In FY2021, individuals gave $131,731.21.. In FY2020, individual contributions totaled $118,816. Please note that individual giving was $30,000 in FY2013. The number of donors also is growing each year.