Tennessee Chapter of Children’s Advocacy Centers

Frequently Asked Questions

How does TNCAC work with CACs?

The Tennessee Chapter of Children’s Advocacy Centers offers a new way of serving abused children through a comprehensive approach to services for victims and their families. Children’s Advocacy Centers stress coordination of investigation and intervention services by bringing together professionals and agencies as a multidisciplinary team to create a child-focused approach to child abuse cases. The goal is to ensure that children are not re-victimized by the very system designed to protect them. The Tennessee Chapter of Children’s Advocacy Centers is a statewide not-for-profit membership organization whose mission is to assist communities seeking to improve their response to child abuse by supporting the development, growth and continuation of Children’s Advocacy Centers (CACs) by offering technical assistance and support to help obtain accreditation in the National Children’s Alliance.

The following program components are necessary for full membership in National Children’s Alliance:

  1. Child-Appropriate/Child-Friendly Facility: A children’s advocacy center provides a comfortable, private, child-friendly setting that is both physically and psychologically safe for clients.
  2. Multidisciplinary Team (MDT): A multidisciplinary team for response to child abuse allegations includes representation from the following:
    • law enforcement
    • child protective services
    • prosecution
    • mental health
    • medical
    • victim advocacy
    • children’s advocacy center
  3. Organizational Capacity: A designated legal entity responsible for program and fiscal operations has been established and implements basic sound administrative practices.
  4. Cultural Competency and Diversity: The CAC promotes policies, practices and procedures that are culturally competent. Cultural competency is defined as the capacity to function in more than one culture, requiring the ability to appreciate, understand and interact with members of diverse populations within the local community.
  5. Forensic Interviews: Forensic interviews are conducted in a manner which is of a neutral, fact finding nature, and coordinated to avoid duplicative interviewing.
  6. Medical Evaluation: Specialized medical evaluation and treatment are to be made available to CAC clients as part of the team response, either at the CAC or through coordination and referral with other specialized medical providers.
  7. Therapeutic Intervention: Specialized mental health services are to be made available as part of the team response, either at the CAC or through coordination and referral with other appropriate treatment providers.
  8. Victim Support/Advocacy: Victim support and advocacy are to be made available as part of the team response, either at the CAC or through coordination with other providers, throughout the investigation and subsequent legal proceedings.
  9. Case Review: Team discussion and information sharing regarding the investigation, case status and services needed by the child and family are to occur on a routine basis.
  10. Case Tracking: CACs must develop and implement a system for monitoring case progress and tracking case outcomes for team components.

TNCAC provides technical support and guidance to CACs-from development to continuation and support of existing centers; provides a forum for CAC Directors and Managers to meet for information exchange; conducts training to all disciplines of the CPIT or multi disciplinary team to enhance effectiveness of investigation, case management, medical and mental health treatment and safety for victims; provides for Quarterly Meetings for CAC Directors and Managers to discuss current issues, policies, procedures and legislation concerning the response to child abuse and neglect and how CACs play a vital role in that regard; and acts as a state-wide point of contact for CACs to provide information to and from CACs.

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