Southern Arizona Childrens Advocacy Center Inc

The mission of the Children’s Advocacy Center of Southern Arizona is to provide a safe, compassionate, healing environment for children who have been a victim or witnessed a crime.
Our vision is to provide each child with the safety they need to tell their story, to provide every family with healing services, and to help hold abusers accountable.
In order to achieve this, the Center provides professionally coordinated services to support families in the short and long-term, and to investigate and prosecute child abuse and neglect. Our dedicated, certified professional staff provides forensic interviews, connection to resources, and medical services in one child-friendly location. We also promote awareness and prevention of abuse through a robust suite of community education and outreach programs.

Investigation: The Children's Advocacy Center collaborates with a team of experts in law enforcement, child welfare, mental health, medicine, and social services to ensure the investigation is conducted in a manner that supports the healing needs of the child and their family.
Healing: Advocacy at the Children's Advocacy Center is built on the idea that their family and home environment can have the strongest impact on how a victim heals. Our team works to build knowledge, capacity, and skills within the family so they have what they need to support their child.
Prevention: Our prevention programs aim to educate adults in the community so they can watch over our children, vigilant for signs of abuse and ready to make a report or provide support to the family as needed. We also empower children to speak up when something isn't right by helping them identify these caring adults in their lives.
Family Support: Long-term support for families at the Children's Advocacy Center is founded on protective factors that prevent further abuse. Our programs build family connection and communication, as well as specific strategies to support children who have experienced trauma. This trauma-informed parenting education, coupled with connection with other families, empowers caregivers with resources both inside themselves and in the community.
Survivor Voice: The VOICES Council and FAB (Family Advisory Board) ensure we define our success through the lens of survivor experience. The VOICES Council is a group of high-school aged youth survivors of child abuse who inform programming and support our work directly with children. Their participation empowers them to impact how the community responds to child abuse and neglect. The Family Advisory Board is comprised of parents and caregivers of child victims, many of whom have come through the Children's Advocacy Center for a criminal investigation. They help us evaluate and enhance our program offerings to meet the current needs in the community.

The Children’s Advocacy Center of Southern Arizona is the only nationally accredited Child Advocacy Center in Southern Arizona, and takes its responsibility to provide a safe, compassionate, healing environment for children and youth very seriously. Beginning with borrowed space by a team of volunteers in 1996, we have grown through community support and partnership to a staff of 25 who provide professionally coordinated victim-centered, trauma-informed services to support victims and families, and to investigate and prosecute abuse and neglect. We are proud of our history of high quality service, long-standing and diverse community partnerships, established service area throughout all of southern Arizona, and ability to create sustainable change.

A recent systematic review found the use of the CAC model reduces victim stress by limiting the number of interview interactions while also increasing the rate of substantiated cases referred for prosecution compared to similar non-CAC cases. In Pima County, we measure our success and seek opportunities to improve by asking our clients:
“My child felt safe at the Center.”
“I feel prepared to respond to my child's needs in the weeks and months ahead.”
“I developed a strong safety plan with my Advocate.”
“Services at the Center prepared me to participate in prosecution.”
As we look to the future, this level of coordination, professionalism, and care must be expanded to all victims of interpersonal crime. Adult victims should also have access to a single location with co-located, multidisciplinary services that support their healing while holding perpetrators accountable. This will necessitate the creation of a Family Justice Center, and the Children’s Advocacy Center is leading the charge.