Child Protection Center, Inc.

The Child Protection Team (CPT) is a medically directed multidisciplinary program based on the idea that child abuse and neglect cases involve complex issues and require the expertise of many professionals, in collaboration, to protect children. Florida Statute 39.303 mandates the existence of CPTs to provide assistance and consultation to DCF and law enforcement in cases of suspected abuse and neglect. This program provides expertise in evaluating allegations of abuse and neglect, assessing risk factors, and providing recommendations for interventions to protect children. Services include forensic medical assessments, forensic interviews, social history evaluations, and community service referrals. CPT provided direct intervention services to 793 children last year.   This included 345 medical assessments and 732 forensic and specialized interviews.

The Child Protection Center provides therapy to children and families with two different approaches.  The Sexual Abuse Treatment Program (SATP) provides specialized treatment services for children who are victims of sexual abuse and for their families, recognizing that child abuse is traumatic for the entire family. Through a combination of group, family, and individual counseling for child sexual abuse survivors and their families, SATP works to reduce the trauma caused by child sexual victimization, prevent further victimization from occurring, and enable families to have healthy, non-abusive relationships. This program has recently been expanded to include children who have experienced the trauma of physical abuse.Additionally, the Kid Kindness Program (KKP) strives to change the lives of the most at-risk youth in our community by correcting patterns of behavior that hurt others. KKP takes proactive measures to reduce the growth of sexual abuse by equipping youth with healthy living skills while correcting misbehavior. The program offers comprehensive assessments and individual, group, and family therapy to those youth who have displayed at-risk or abuse-reactive behaviors.  Last fiscal year, 3,758 hours of individual, group, and family counseling were provided by the CPC clinical therapy team, this included 266 unduplicated clients receiving services.

The Personal Safety and Community Awareness Program (PSCA) offers a holistic approach to the prevention of child abuse by promoting greater community awareness of the issue. PSCA provides primary abuse prevention education to children from preschool through high school. The program facilitates workshops for their caregivers, childcare professionals, teachers, school board staff and others throughout the community. The focus is the creation of a future in which children are empowered and educated, adults are aware and equipped, and our community is a safer place for children and families. PSCA conducted 1021 prevention workshops for 62,320 program participants last year.