Children's Advocacy Center of Benton County

The CAC strives to provide comprehensive, efficient and compassionate care to each child and family that arrives at our Center. These evidence-based services are proven to minimize the impact of trauma and long-term effects of child abuse. Services that would otherwise cost thousands of dollars to families in crisis, are provided free of charge. In doing so, our goal is to facilitate healing for child abuse victims and their families to lead lives free of abuse.

Each of the CAC's core components are strategically designed to comprehensively respond to and prevent child abuse across Benton County.

The Advocacy component is designed to educate and guide children and family members in the aftermath of their crisis and trauma, while providing access to needed information, services, and support. If needed, advocates will refer clients for counseling and a licensed counselor will assess the severity of trauma symptoms within 30 days of their initial visit with our center. This early assessment will allow our agency to connect clients to the appropriate services, including ongoing support, more efficiently.

The Forensic Interviewing component is designed to provide an opportunity for alleged victims to disclose about maltreatment in a neutral, fact-finding interaction. Forensic interviewers are specifically trained to gather information in a developmentally-appropriate, legally- sound and non-leading manner. In providing such an environment, the CAC model minimizes re-victimization and decreases the number of times a victim must tell their story.

The Mental Health component provides quality, holistic trauma-focused counseling sessions in both English and Spanish to help diminish trauma symptoms, creating a path toward healing for all children and families. Trauma therapy models used include, but are not limited to, Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT), Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR), Child-Parent Psychotherapy (CPP), and Play Therapy.

The Education component combats child maltreatment by equipping the community with resources necessary to create a safe environment for children. This component focuses on expanding training curriculum to include content specifically addressing signs and symptoms of child abuse and strategies for prevention to equip professionals and caregivers.

The Medical component provides an opportunity for children to receive a medical assessment for the purposes of evidence collection onsite at the CAC. Currently, contract nurses are utilized for access to medical care at the CAC, rather than sending families to local urgent care facilities or emergency rooms. The team of nurses provides access to care 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for acute and chronic sexual abuse cases. This component also routinely provides physical abuse exams and hair follicle testing for drug-endangered children at the request of investigative agencies.

The CAC coordinates professional services with law enforcement, Department of Children and Family Services professionals, Benton County Prosecutor’s Office professionals and Arkansas State Police Crimes Against Children Division investigators in a child-friendly environment. The CAC and these agencies make up the multidisciplinary team who works collaboratively in response to child abuse allegations. The team meets biweekly for Case Review to discuss recent hotline calls to ensure information is shared so that the child and family are receiving the services needed and that justice may be served, when appropriate.

The CAC staff currently includes: trained forensic interviewers (one bilingual); four child advocates (two bilingual); a team of contract Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners who perform forensic medical exams at the Center with our video colposcope (medical equipment specifically designed for these exams); and four full-time staff therapists (one bilingual) who can each meet with the child and non-offending family members for trauma-focused counseling. CAC staff members not only have appropriate degrees, but they also have been specifically trained and equipped for child abuse issues and know how to provide the services needed for the child and non-offending family members. Interns are also utilized through degree-specific programs from local colleges and universities. Staff are trained to meet the needs of diverse populations, as well as to create an environment that is inclusive of all.

In 2020, the CAC provided initial services and advocacy support for 970 children, offered 910 forensic interviews, performed 95 forensic medical exams for children for sexual assault, and counseled children and their non-offending family members for 2,005 mental health sessions. We also facilitated training and education for 2,644 adults and 3,262 children. Since the CAC opened its doors, we have provided services to over 12,500 child abuse victims and their family members.

In March 2020, the CAC broke ground in Gentry, AR to establish a satellite Center (CAC West) to better serve children and families living in rural Western Benton County communities. Last year alone, an estimated 600 children would have been better served, had a facility existed in their local community. In October 2020, doors opened at CAC West and over 100 children have been served already.