Child Advocacy Center
Support for victims of child abuse
Supporting Children in Need
We help children find their voice
Imagine you are 12 years old. Your coach has started touching you and tells you he will kill your little sister if you tell anyone.
Imagine you are 7 years old. Your mom's new boyfriend has started coming into your bedroom at night.
What do you do? Who do you tell?
How do you make it stop?
1 in 10 children are abused before their 18th birthday.
Unless a child shares their story, it's often impossible to make the abuse stop. Imagine you found the courage to tell someone and chose a trusted teacher at school. You're then interviewed by a police officer, then a social worker, followed by a doctor, a lawyer, a therapist - each time being taken to a police station, government office, hospital, lawyer's office. As difficult as it was to tell the story once, now you must relive and retell the painful traumatic details again and again.
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This is why our Child Advocacy Center is a critical service!
The CAC connects these agencies and services together, in one safe environment to focus on assistance, support, and care.
What we do
A look at the services we provide
The Child Advocacy Center provides a centralized hub to connect children and families with care and support. Multiple agencies work together as part of a multidisciplinary team to simplify the process of care, treatment, and prosecution of alleged child abuse cases.
School Support Education
Helping educators know what to do
School districts are often one of the first places where allegations of child abuse are disclosed.
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Your initial reaction to suspected child abuse sets in motion a series of events that impact that child and their family members indefinitely. It may be hard to know how to react to such a sensitive and difficult subject.
Our teams are available to provide training
on several topics including:
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How to respond when a child discloses abuse
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Mandated reporting for professionals
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Sexually exploited youth and child sex trafficking in our community
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Signs and risk factors of abused children
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NYS mandated Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Education / Healthy Boundaries Curriculum
See Something, Say Something
Our REACH and CAC Centers for crime and abuse serve over 500 children, families, and adults each year. In the case of children, they can be too afraid, and sometimes too young, to speak up for themselves. They need help from others.
