National Children’s Alliance

____________________________________________________________________________

What is National Children’s Alliance (NCA)?

Established in 1988, NCA is the national association and accrediting body for more than 930 Children’s Advocacy Centers (CACs) across the United States. Last year CACs served 386,191 children for concerns of child abuse, the most ever in one year. See our 2021 Annual Report for more information.

 What is a Children’s Advocacy Center (CAC)?

A CAC is a child-friendly facility and public/private partnership where law enforcement, child protection, prosecution, mental health, medical and victim advocacy professionals work together to investigate abuse, hold offenders accountable, and most importantly, help children heal from abuse.

____________________________________________________________________________

Key Focus Areas at NCA:

Advocacy - NCA was at the forefront of efforts to increase federal funding for services to victims of crime, successfully persuading the U.S. Congress to pass the Victims of Crime Act in 2021 to support agencies, like CACs, in serving crime victims. 

Supporting CACs – this year NCA will administer more than $20 million in federal funding to support CAC core services and projects that include helping child victims of child pornography, and human trafficking.

National Standards of Accreditation – NCA convened more than 120 subject matter experts and leaders in the field to work together on updating the standards for CAC accreditation, helping to ensure the care children receive reflects the latest research and thinking in the field.

Outcome Measurement – 94% of accredited CACs participate in NCA’s Outcome Measurement System, collecting more than 70,000 surveys each year from children, families, and multidisciplinary team partners to help serve kids better.  

Efficiency – according to NCA's 2021 990, Fundraising, Administrative, Management and General Expenses were 8.5% of total expenditures.

____________________________________________________________________________

Current Initiatives:

Increasing children’s access to trauma focused therapy - NCA estimates there are 80,000 child abuse victims each year served by CACs who can’t access the care they need, mainly because there aren’t enough therapists trained to provide it. NCA is committed to changing that. This year NCA will launch a series of trainings for mental health professionals on treatments designed to reduce symptoms of trauma associated with child abuse. That means more children will get the care they need to address their anxiety, depression, difficulty sleeping or other issues that are normal responses to trauma.  

Other initiatives include - expanding access to the children’s advocacy center model, leveraging public/private partnerships to strengthen research and best practices, enhancing the use of technology to create more efficient and integrated systems for our member children’s advocacy centers and the hundreds of thousands of children they serve, and making sure there are places where a child’s voice is heard, in local communities and all the way to Washington DC.

____________________________________________________________________________

Join us on Twitter @NCAforCACs and Facebook!