National Childrens Advocacy Center, Inc.

As a child-focused, multidisciplinary response to child abuse, the National Children's Advocacy Center was established to prevent the re-victimization of sexually abused children by the system's response to their cases. The NCAC Clinical Department is dedicated to providing an array of child abuse intervention services to Madison County and its surrounding areas in order to minimize the long-term effects of abuse.

Services offered by the NCAC Clinical Department include Forensic Interview Services, Mental Health Services, Medical Services, Family and Victim Advocate Services, and coordination of investigations by our Multidisciplinary Team. We serve children under the age of 19 who are alleged victims of child sexual abuse or severe physical abuse. Diverse communities are impacted by these services, in that children and families from a wide range of socioeconomic and ethnic groups are equally served. No group is denied services because of an inability to pay, since there is no charge for services. All children who qualify for and need services receive them regardless of race, ethnicity, religious background, and socioeconomic status.
Prevention programs also serve to educate first time parents, single parents, parents in crisis and others to prevent the abuse from occurring. Programs include SCAN (Stop Child Abuse and Neglect), a school-based program for children in 3rd, 5th, and 7th grades, an adult education program, Stewards of Children, parenting classes for at-risk parents, case management services for first-time parents, and Partnerships in Parenting designed to support first-time fathers to be more engaged and involved with their children.

As the organization that developed the concept for the Children's Advocacy Center model, the NCAC is uniquely positioned to provide services to the children and families of our community and surrounding area. With a passion for serving these most vulnerable children of our community, the members of the multidisciplinary team effectively serve children and families affected by abuse.

Since the creation of the NCAC, more than 320,000 child abuse victims have been helped by CACs. Last year alone, more than 10,000 children were served nationally. Next steps for the NCAC include developing a more robust medical effort for all clients and continuing to serve our local children in all aspects of child abuse prevention and intervention. We recently we able to bring on additional medical staffing to continue this important work. We now provide medical exams five days a week.