Preventing child abuse, providing victim services, investigating child abuse claims https://grants.dudleytdoughertyfoundation.org/proposals-2012/preventing-child-abuse-providing-victim-services-investigating-child-abuse-claims https://grants.dudleytdoughertyfoundation.org/@@site-logo/sitelogo-75x75.png

Preventing child abuse, providing victim services, investigating child abuse claims

Additional Information
Used for	Our request for funding will allow us to raise the local cash match needed to fully fund nine positions at the Children's Advocacy Center of the Coastal Bend. These positions are partially funded by grants received through Children's Advocacy Centers of Texas and the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA). The nine positions in need of partial funding are: executive director, lead forensic interviewer/program director, forensic interviewer (2), victims assistant (2), community service specialist, administrative assistant, and case manager.
Benefits	Funding will allow the CAC to prevent child abuse, provide services to child abuse victims, and contribute to more judicious outcomes in cases in which child abuse is alleged. A foundation grant will allow us to fund nine positions for an entire 12 months so that we can continue to assist approximately 2,000 clients annually through an estimated 9,000 services to children and their non-offending family members. In doing so, we will fullfill our mission "to lessen the trauma to abused children and their families by uniting the efforts of public agencies and enlisting the support of the community."
Proposal Description	Our goal is to fully fund employee salaries so that they may remain employed at the CAC throughout the grant period (September 1, 2012 to August 31, 2013. This will allow us to reduce our backlog of cases, provide a higher quality of services to our clients, recruit new volunteers, raise public awareness of child abuse, and reduce child abuse in the Coastal Bend. If fully funded, our employees will be able to: *reduce the backlog of child abuse cases pending before local courts; *conduct better interviews with alleged victims so that prosecutors will be able to make better decisions as to which cases to prosecute; *provide more comprehensive services to victims and their families; *keep track of data and statistics sued for grant reporting and informing the public; *do a better job of greeting clients, answering phones, scheduling appointments, filing, typing, and managing finances; *make more presentations and provide educational classes to primary and secondary victims of child abuse; *better coordinate our volunteer program; *promote the center and its services to the community. As previously mentioned, our request for funding will allow us to raise the local cash match needed to fully fund nine positions at the Children's Advocacy Center of the Coastal Bend. These positions are partially funded by grants received through Children's Advocacy Centers of Texas and the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA). The act established the Crime Victims Fund to help victims and victim service providers with program funding. The nine positions in need of partial funding are: executive director, lead forensic interviewer/program director, forensic interviewer (2), victims assistant (2), community service specialist, administrative assistant, and case manager. Four of these positions (forensic interviewer, administrative assistant, case manager, and community service specialist) are new to the Coastal Bend CAC. Their compensation is partially funded through a VOCA grant awarded to us due to our high demand for services. The total cost of these positions (salary plus benefits) for one year is $405,344.49. Of that, $294,728.17 is covered by grants, leaving a balance of more than $100,000 that must be raised locally. If we do not raise local funds, some will have to be laid off before the end of the grant period (September 1, 2012-August 31, 2013) and the inability to raise local funds will make it more difficult to qualify for future grants next year. An additional $16,400 is needed for program materials, office supplies, training, utilities, and printing. The Children's Advocacy Center of the Coastal Bend (CAC) is a non-profit organization that works with sexually and severely physically abused children, human trafficking victims, drug-endangered children, child witnesses to violent crimes and their non-offending family members. Individuals involved with the Child Abuse Council of South Texas established the CAC in 1994 following a series of poorly handled child abuse cases that demonstrated the need for a central, non-biased, child-friendly organization to facilitate child abuse investigations. In 2011, the center conducted 1,957 forensic interviews of children from the Coastal Bend counties and provided more than 9,000 services to these children and their non-offending family members. Since 2010, our numbers put the Children's Advocacy Center among the top three centers in Texas for the highest number of child abuse cases seen in a service area. Our mission is to lessen the trauma to abused children and their families by uniting the efforts of public agencies and enlisting the support of the community. Our goals are to advocate for the rights of children and their specific needs and create an environment where child abuse is no longer tolerated. The Children's Advocacy Center is a collaborative effort of public agencies charged with investigating, prosecuting, and treating child victims of sexual and physical abuse. The partner agencies include: • Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, • Corpus Christi Police Department, • Driscoll Children's Hospital, • Nueces County District Attorney's Office, • Nueces County Sheriff's Department, and • many area therapist offices. • The center also has agreements with the other 11 counties in the Coastal Bend to provide courtesy services for those communities and area investigative, prosecutorial and therapeutic agencies. The CAC is an accredited member of the National Children's Alliance and Children's Advocacy Centers of Texas, Inc. We receive funding from CACs of Texas, the Children's Justice Act, and private donations.