Annual Report 2021: Amplifying Children’s Voices

A message from the CEO

Dear Friends,

2021 was the year of perpetual motion. In 2020, as a result of the pandemic, National Children’s Alliance (NCA) member Children’s Advocacy Centers (CACs) served fewer children than the year before—a rare anomaly. Yet, we suspected, that drop was not owing to fewer children being abused, but rather that fewer of them being seen by mandatory reporters. So as the country moved to a new normal in 2021, CACs engaged in significant outreach to those children who may have been abused during the early portion of the pandemic. The result was a significant jump in the number of children served by CACs—the largest number of children our field has ever reached in one year: 386,191.

While CACs exist as places where children can speak the truth of their experiences and get expert care, NCA works to lift the voices of children beyond the walls of the CAC. In 2021, that meant reaching the halls of Congress with our message about the urgent need to fix funding for victims’ services, so children could continue to receive trauma-informed care at their local CAC. It meant training family and victim advocates to engage more families in mental health treatments through a CAC, to help them heal. It meant revising our National Standards of Accreditation for CACs and incorporating a stronger emphasis on diversity, equity, and access. And it meant providing more educational opportunities and resources for CAC staff and their partners.

Through it all, we never stopped reaching out—to our members, to our partners, and to other experts in the field who could help us amplify children’s voices. In this Annual Report, we’ll introduce you to just a handful of the many people we teamed up with in 2021. Like us, our members and partners never stop trying to do more, and do better, when kids are in need. It’s our honor to be able to help.

Warm regards,

Teresa Huizar
Chief Executive Officer
National Children’s Alliance

Sharing their truths

From local CACs serving the highest number of children ever to NCA and our partners developing a national blueprint to end child abuse, our year has been focused in ensuring that children’s voices are heard—so that they can heal, and so we can do everything possible to prevent future children from experiencing the trauma of abuse.

A year of achievements

It’s not possible for us to cover everything we accomplished together in 2021. But a few notable statistics capture the essence of the year.

A young Black girl with her arms spread wide stands in front of her smiling parents. Photo by Osarugue Igbinoba from Unsplash.

What we did, together

The highpoints of 2021 were many—starting with a national fix to the drain on funding for victims’ services that had started to squeeze the services that CACs could offer to children and families.

Sunset High School football team in Portland, Oregon, runs onto the field. Photo by Joel de Leon from Pexels.

2021 by the numbers

939

Children's Advocacy Centers

386,191

Children helped by CACs

2,860,465

People trained in child abuse prevention by CACs

In 2021, the CAC movement continued to grow, reaching more children than ever before. After the first pandemic year of 2020, when many children were out of contact with those who usually speak up when something is wrong, the number of children our movement served bounced back as we redoubled our efforts to reach kids in need, reaching nearly 400,000 for the first time. The number of CACs on the NCA membership rolls continued to grow toward 1,000. That included 18 CACs that were accredited for the first time and 128 re-accredited CACs. Together, NCA member CACs reached almost 3 million people with child abuse prevention training, ensuring that ever more of us are equipped to spot and stop child abuse and help kids get the healing and justice they deserve.

Full national, regional, and state CAC service statistics are available on our CAC Statistics page.

2021 Highlights

Ending the drain on funding for victims’ services

In 2020-21, NCA was at the forefront of efforts to create a permanent fix to the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) that funds many victim-serving organizations. We and our partners—our Chapters and CAC members along with adult sexual assault and domestic violence organizations, state attorneys general, and VOCA administrators—successfully persuaded Congress to pass the VOCA Fix Act in July, with a 100-0 unanimous vote in the Senate. Thousands of people participated in our #PowerToTheKids campaign and Day of Action to support passage of the bill, and afterward nearly 5,000 of our supporters helped us reach more than 27,000 Facebook users to share posts of NCA leaders at the White House bill signing ceremony. The new law is already making a difference by bringing in $254 million to the Crime Victims Fund in September 2021, the largest one-month amount in more than four years. But we still have a ways to go to fully replenish the fund, so NCA followed up with assistance to our members on ways to bridge the current funding gap.

A photo of the VOCA Fix bill signing at the White House in July 2021.

More than $20 million in grants to serve kids everywhere

In grant year 2021, NCA administered nearly $14.5 million in federal grants for the CAC National Subgrants Program, for State Chapter organizational capacity and statewide projects, for the coordination of CAC services to military families, and for services to victims of sexual exploitation (“child pornography”) and human trafficking. In addition, this was the first full year of the American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) Subgrant Program, which has a five-year grant cycle, giving awardees stable funding for five years, with awards that will total more than $5 million. In response to the impact of the pandemic on CACs, NCA in 2021 also successfully advocated for three-year grants for core CAC services—victim advocacy, forensic interviewing, mental health, medical services, and multidisciplinary team coordination and case support. The change will take effect in 2022.

Increased access to mental health services

Our ongoing Enhance Early Engagement (E3) project, in partnership with the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center on a National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) grant, is training victim advocates on evidence-based strategies aimed at getting more families to participate in mental health services through their local CAC. And in Utah, thanks to funding from Cambia Health Solutions, six Children’s Justice Centers (CJCs, as CACs are known in Utah) have signed agreements to make nearly 5,700 therapy hours available children and families in 12 rural counties. A new partnership with Pediatric Integrated Post-Traumatic Services at the University of Utah means 17 CJCs will get training and support in screening children for mental health symptoms.

Revised Standards raise the bar for accreditation

The science changes, even if the mission remains the same. That’s why more than 120 subject matter experts, Chapter leaders, Regional CAC staff, Victims of Child Abuse Act (VOCAA) partners, and CAC leaders contributed their time and expertise to update our National Standards of Accreditation for CACs to adhere to the latest research and elevate the level of service children and families can expect at an Accredited CAC. NCA published the revised Standards, which take effect on January 1, 2023, along with a companion book, Putting Standards into Practice. We also released Accreditation Bootcamp 2.0, an online training series to help centers improve their practice as they work to meet the new requirements.

2023 National Standards of Accreditation for Children's Advocacy Centers

Online communities Say It Louder

NCA history was made when we launched our first ever online charity streaming event—the Say It Louder campaign—as part of our Annual Appeal. More than 70 gamers, artists, musicians, artisan keycap makers, chefs, and their communities from all over the world came together to help amplify the voices of children and spread awareness of the Children’s Advocacy Center movement! These content creators inspired more than $65,000 in donations to NCA and transformed the ways we think about fundraising and our online presence.

Partial screenshot from Twitch streamer bescotti's charity fundraiser for NCA. Photo courtesy of bescotti.

Strengthening military partnerships

NCA works with local centers and the Pentagon to ensure that military children receive the same level of care that civilian children get in the same communities. That’s why we’re committed to identifying opportunities to increase awareness of the military children we may already be serving—or missing. In 2021, we released Ready to Serve, our report derived from the military partnership questions on the 2020 CAC Census, highlighting the critical role CACs play in meeting the unique needs of military families, and opportunities for improved collaboration with our counterparts in the military.

Military mom hugs her daughter. Photo by Bermix Studio from Unsplash.

Chapters helping Chapters

NCA’s Chapter Collaborative Work Group helped us develop a formalized online mentoring program for State Chapters, called Mentor Match. Under the new program, all State Chapter directors will be able to participate in mentor/mentee relationships in which they share their expertise with fellow Chapter directors.

Mentor and mentee icons on a blue background

Take a listen

Our podcast, One in Ten, is in its fourth season, with 51 episodes published since the podcast started in mid-2019. We ended 2021 with 46,561 all-time downloads. So far, 15 episodes have reached more than 1,000 downloads as new content is added and new listeners (or old friends) go back to listen to powerful episodes from earlier seasons. Our most popular episode, “The Hidden Cost of Resilience” with former NCA president Ernestine Briggs-King, Ph.D., has been downloaded more than 2,400 times. We launched a new mobile-friendly website, OneInTenPodcast.org, to catalog our past episodes and reach new audiences with this top resource.

One in Ten podcast logo

Diversity, equity, and inclusion inform our work

Ensuring our field reflects and connects with the diversity of the population we serve has to start at home. NCA’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Committee enlisted DEI consultants to work with our Standards Revision Task Force to ensure our revised National Standards of Accreditation for CACs incorporate diversity, equity, and access throughout all 10 Standards. We also provided NCA staff with multiple DEI-related trainings and created a hiring manager’s checklist to improve staff diversity and reduce potential bias in NCA’s recruitment, applicant screening, hiring, and onboarding. We held a daylong Equity Summit training for State Chapter leaders and have brought in a DEI consultant to advise our ongoing strategic planning process.

A blueprint for prevention, healing, and justice

We worked closely with our partners in the Keep Kids Safe Coalition to create a federal blueprint to end sexual violence against children. The blueprint calls on the administration and Congress to act on a number of priorities focused on prevention, healing, and justice. NCA, one of the founding members of Keep Kids Safe, will use the blueprint as our legislative roadmap, alongside our partners, to guide the federal response to child sexual abuse.

Voices from the field

Why do we do what we do at NCA? Because kids deserve to grow up happy, healthy, and safe. While our members work locally and at the state level, we work nationally to enhance and guide the work that communities are doing to protect children. Below are a handful of stories about a few of the people who work at NCA member CACs and Chapters, and what they accomplished in 2021.

Amplifying our voices to pass the VOCA Fix

In perhaps one of the most impressive concerted actions our field has ever seen, we teamed up with CACs, State Chapters, Regional CACs, and many other victim-serving organizations to reverse the dwindling resources of the Crime Victims Fund. Though our work towards sustainable funding is far from over, leaders from three organizations share their perspectives.

Adapting to meet the needs of Native American communities

Childhaven CAC in Farmington, New Mexico, won a five-year federal grant administered by NCA to deliver CAC services to a tribal community. Overachievers that they are, they’re working with three different Native American nations, adapting to the needs of each one, to make sure kids who have experienced abuse can get the care they need.

Youth Feedback Survey: Hearing from children what works and what doesn't

ChildSafe San Antonio has participated in NCA’s Outcome Measurement System program for 10 years, and when we added a Youth Feedback Survey for 10- to 17-year-old children served at CACs, they knew immediately that they wanted to use those surveys, too. Hearing directly from children is the best way to find out what works and what doesn’t for kids at CACs.

ChildSafe Healing Garden

To serve kids better, question everything

Every five years, NCA re-examines our National Standards of Accreditation to ensure that Accredited CACs deliver the best-possible care to children and families. Dominic Prophete, chief executive officer of Wynona’s House in Essex, New Jersey, who volunteered to serve on our CAC Standards Revision Task Force in 2021, is a big believer in the value of scrutinizing your own work even when you believe everything is going well.

Front door of Wynona's House in Newark, New Jersey

Bringing families into the healing process

CACs can offer the best services in the world for children who have experienced trauma, but unless kids and families take advantage of those services, it doesn’t make a difference. The team at Copper River Basin Child Advocacy Center in Alaska is using what it learned in our Enhance Early Engagement training to increase the number of families that participate in mental health treatment.

Copper River Basin CAC

The power (of the purse) to heal communities

The problem was persistent—and without new legislation, unfixable. The Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) established the Crime Victims Fund (CVF) to provide services for victims. VOCA funding was to be replenished by non-tax dollars through fines and penalties paid by convicted federal offenders, offering a way for criminals to pay to serve those harmed by crime. But in recent years, more and more cases were settled through deferred prosecution and non-prosecution agreements—and, under statute, those penalties didn’t go into the Crime Victims Fund. Victim-serving organizations around the country found themselves in the perfect storm: a drying-up CVF, a pandemic that threatened their own economic ability to raise money, and a state budget environment that made the largest leg of the stool appear less stable than ever.

Many CACs and other victim service organizations faced the possibility of cutting services, preparing for even more cuts and even closures as VOCA funding decreased. Reversing the decline was NCA’s top priority in 2021—and our top victory. NCA, our CAC members, State Chapters, Regional CACs, and a wide variety of other organizations worked together to persuade a divided Congress to protect our communities.

For Gene Klein, executive director of Project Harmony in Omaha, Nebraska, “This was probably the most impressive coming-together of our advocacy on a national level, where what was happening in D.C. really meant something in my own community.” He credits NCA with keeping communications clear and targeted. “I felt like I had a very clear purpose in how I could help, and we were then able to engage our partner and our community in that effort. I think this is just the tip of the iceberg of what can happen when the power of CACs comes together on a national level, and I think the opportunities are endless. We’ve demonstrated, as a national movement, that when we have a very clear purpose and a focus, we can get a lot done nationally.”

Tammi Pitzen, executive director of the Children’s Advocacy Center of Jackson County in Oregon, agrees: “What this has shown me is that we are able to elevate a victim’s voice at the national level. Many times their voices are overlooked, particularly in child abuse. … It was astounding to see the voices of the children who received services from us reach the White House, reach the Capitol.”

Safe Horizon is one of the nation’s largest victim services organizations, reaching more than 250,000 in New York City each year who have experienced violence, including children who have experienced physical or sexual abuse. Government Affairs Policy Director Jimmy Meagher says, “CACs exist to minimize the trauma that kids experience, to set them on a path of healing and stability and safety. VOCA is essential, critical funding that allows us to keep our doors open.”

Safe Horizon’s Vice President of Government Affairs Michael Polenberg looks forward to what this victory can bring our communities. “Having something like the VOCA Fix bill pass means that there’s increased ability to serve not only crime victims who come forward and ask for help but also those who may be afraid to come forward and ask for help, who don’t believe that the system can help them, or don’t know where to turn to for help. It gives us the ability to really heal communities and help people move forward.”

Until the CVF refills, our work to ensure sustainable VOCA funding for CACs, and ultimately for the children and families they serve, continues. But this moment is a reminder what we can achieve when we set our collective power toward a common goal.

 

 

Tailoring our support to the community—including three sovereign tribal nations

In Fiscal Year 2021, NCA for the first time administered more than $5 million in federal grants to organizations to deliver CAC services to American Indian or Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities. The Alaska State Chapter (Alaska Children’s Alliance) and the National Native Children’s Trauma Center partnered with us to assist organizations applying for the five-year grants. And if we were to single out one CAC for making terrific use of the grant money right away, Childhaven Children’s Advocacy Center would be a good choice.

Childhaven, located in Farmington, New Mexico, and its satellite, Hummingbird Children’s Advocacy Center in Gallup, are building relationships with three nations: the Navajo Nation, which stretches across multiple states and has about 300,000 members; the Jicarilla Apache Nation, with a population of about 3,500 on nearly 900,00 acres; and the Pueblo of Zuni in western New Mexico, with some 10,000 people.

With the grant funds, Childhaven hired a tribal liaison, a family advocate, and a therapist and began the process of reaching out to prospective tribal multidisciplinary team members and developing formal written protocols with all three nations. Tribal Liaison Donald Chee says, “With the three tribes, we want to focus more on the social services and the law enforcement departments and discuss how we can provide trainings or streamline some of the services we provide with their departments.”

Vanessa Frank, interim director and forensic interviewer at Hummingbird CAC, understands that law enforcement agencies are understaffed, under-resourced, and expected to cover huge areas. “Sometimes law enforcement is just burned out. So when this grant came about, we immediately met with Navajo Nation Council delegates and advocated for law enforcement.” She wants to keep children from falling through the cracks because of a lack of resources. On the day we spoke to her, she was preparing to go to the Zuni Pueblo reservation to meet with social services and law enforcement. “What more can we do to better our communication skills? Our teamwork protocols? What ways can we assist with forensic interviews?”

Those are the immediate concerns. What’s the long-term vision for the CACs’ relationships with all three nations? Childhaven’s Chief Executive Officer Erin Hourihan emphasizes the need to respect the nations’ sovereignty. “We don’t want to just presuppose what they feel like might be lacking or wanting. It’s important to find out what their needs are and go from there.” How those relationships develop in the future is up to the sovereign nations. “These tribes can determine for themselves how they want to continue. If they want to have their own independent CACs on tribal lands, we would help them support those entities. … We’re open to all the different possibilities.”

In the past, NCA support has helped Childhaven expand its services and establish the Hummingbird center. With the AI/AN grant funds, they might not know exactly what the future holds, but they’ve got their sights set on making big strides towards giving all kids access to CAC services.

 

 

In their own voice: Hearing from children what works and what doesn’t

The building was too quiet.

ChildSafe San Antonio moved into a new building in August 2019 in the Harvey E. Najim Children and Family Center, and they were justifiably proud of it. It’s a national model on 10 wooded acres. So when the team at ChildSafe, which has participated in NCA’s Outcome Measurement System (OMS) program for 10 years, heard about our new Youth Feedback Survey, this was a great opportunity to hear how the 10- to 17-year-olds who took the survey felt about the new space.

One thing that turned up repeatedly in youth survey responses was that the large building was very quiet, which might make the kids feel like they had to be quiet, too. That’s the opposite of what you want at a CAC. You want children to relax and feel like they can talk and be themselves. So ChildSafe set up speakers to play nature sounds—both to reinforce the calming nature aspect of the building and provide background noise. But you’d never have known if you didn’t ask the question.

For President and CEO Kim Abernethy, participating in NCA’s Youth Feedback Survey was a “no-brainer.” She says, “You should do it because the whole idea is for us to make sure we’re serving the children and they’re getting exactly what they need. We want to keep making our program better and better. And the way to do that is to get feedback from—not just the families, but from the children we are serving.”

Director of Client Services Sarah Banner agrees. “Ultimately, we’re here to serve these children and make sure they feel comfortable in an environment where they can make a disclosure about what has happened to them. And it’s important to get feedback from them because the caregiver can only speak for them so much. They’re not the ones that are in the forensic interview or interacting the staff on that level.”

After NCA added the Youth Feedback Survey to OMS in January 2021, 332 CACs in 46 states collected 13,245 surveys from children they had served. Each CAC has flexibility for when exactly they offer each survey as part of their process, and ChildSafe chose to offer the Youth Feedback Survey to children aged 10-17 after their forensic interview appointment. “The children are very open to completing the survey,” Abernethy says, either on paper or using a computer. “There’s a lot of open-ended questions on the survey, and we regularly get full statements or sentences about their experiences, whether it’s positive or it’s something that we can look at making better in the future.” It’s invaluable feedback in a child-centered field like ours, and with 94% of Accredited CACs participating in OMS, we expect the number of them that offer the Youth Feedback Survey to grow in 2022.

At ChildSafe, the team provides the results of these and other of NCA’s OMS surveys, such as the Initial Visit Caregiver Survey, to its board of directors. They also send results out to the staff of the entire agency on the fifth of every month. Abernethy says that the OMS results are a good way to keep everyone in the loop. In particular, she sees the board members all reading the results of the youth surveys, not just skimming over the answers. “They really appreciate it.”

 

 

To serve kids better, question everything

To truly help children and families heal from the trauma of abuse, NCA and our members demand proof that what we are doing is effective, and we always look for ways to improve. That’s why NCA not only sets National Standards of Accreditation for our field but also re-examines those standards every five years.

It’s also why Dominic Prophete, chief executive officer of Wynona’s House in Essex, N.J., volunteered to serve on our CAC Standards Revision Task Force to work on revised standards for CACs that will take effect in 2023. Wynona’s House, an Accredited CAC, has been serving its community for 20 years. It’s easy, Prophete says, “to take it for granted that everything is working properly. And for all intents and purposes, it may be. But when you take that fresh look, you start to impose a level of scrutiny that is good for any organization,” particularly those that respond to a critical issue such as child abuse. By re-examining the standards we set for ourselves, “we’re allowing ourselves to grow again, to continue to be relevant.”

He points out how current events factored into the review. The pandemic continues to shape our movement: Forensic interviews, in which a trained CAC staff member collects a statement from a child that may be used in a criminal case against a suspected abuser, are traditionally done at the CAC. Even before the pandemic, Prophete says, that could be a problem—if, for example, transportation issues made it hard for a family to get to the CAC. Now because of the pandemic, “we have tele-forensic interview protocols added to the standards that allow us to provide an option to families.”

Issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion were a big part of the conversation for the standards reviewers, too. “You started to see the commonality of thought there,” he says, the way our standards needed to grow to ensure CAC services are equally available to and equally effective for diverse communities.

Sharing knowledge and experiences during the revision process is invaluable. By themselves, CACs “put together solutions that kind of stay within a silo or a specific group.” But the standards revision process “gives us an opportunity to take those notes, those collections, those solutions, and bring it to the broader community of CACs.” Prophete saw how other CACs balance client confidentiality with the need to collect statistics and came up with ideas to take back to Wynona’s House to refine his own team’s processes.

Prophete capped off his work on the task force by recording a video for our Accreditation Bootcamp 2.0 series of modules about the 10 standards. “There’s an instant in everyone’s life that can make a difference,” he said on the video, a moment where their life can change for the better or can turn towards a more complicated and traumatic set of events. “These standards allow us to be consistent, allows everyone to know exactly how to react, what’s expected. All of that collectively allows optimal safety and response for children and families in crisis—which can be the moment that leads towards a positive impact and response” for children and families. “That’s what’s at stake really. That’s why it’s important for us to get it right.” And, every five years, to rigorously re-examine the standards we set for ourselves to make absolutely sure we are doing what’s best for the people who come to us for help.

 

 

Bringing families into the healing process

CACs can offer the best services in the world for children who have experienced trauma, but unless kids and families take advantage of those services, it doesn’t make a difference. So NCA has been exploring how to increase the number of families that engage in mental health treatments through their local CAC—whether that means getting treatment at the CAC itself or by going to a trauma-trained therapist that the CAC recommends. We designed our Enhance Early Engagement (E3) training with the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center (OUHSC) to help victim advocates at CACs learn how to increase family engagement. And, because that may mean changing a CAC’s policies or procedures, we require at least one senior leader at each participating CAC to go through E3 training, too.

The team at Copper River Basin Child Advocacy Center in Alaska highly recommends the E3 training. “Participate,” Executive Director Gina Hoke says. “It really made a difference. It may take a little bit of time. It may take a little bit of commitment from your advocates and from you as a supervisor, but it really helps in the end.” For Hoke, E3 training provided her rural CAC with invaluable tools and with structure. One size doesn’t fit all when it comes to delivering services to families. “With this project,” Hoke says, “you were able to really verify and clarify with the caregiver if this is a good fit, if the mental health referral would really help the family and the child move forward.

Former victim advocate Laura Scott, who participated in the training before leaving to become a teacher, found it significantly helpful to learn about using a screening tool to determine which mental health services would be the best fit for a client. Copper River and its Valdez satellite center weren’t using a screening tool before. “I knew we needed this tool. But with so many out there, it was hard to know, as a non-mental-health person, what would be appropriate.” Once she learned which tool to use, she found that the screener “facilitated a lot of conversations in natural ways. It’s short. It’s concise. It’s to the point. I like how it’s scripted, and I love that window that you have with the families to give them feedback about their answers … pinpointing things that maybe their caregivers weren’t able to see.”

Colleen Murphy has a dual role, working as a family advocate at the Valdez satellite CAC and as a case manager at Providence Valdez Counseling Center. She appreciates the resources that participants get in the E3 training, and the screening tool. “But it also really helped me with realizing the small things.” For example, she learned the value of a “warm handoff” —in which an advocate like Colleen who has built rapport with a child introduces them to the person who will be their clinician and say, “This is another trusted adult. This is another person that’s here to help you.” She can bridge the gap and make sure the child and family make it from one service to the next. It’s a little detail with a big payoff.

For Hoke, the E3 training that NCA and OUHSC offer is priceless. Instead of just referring children and caregivers to a clinician, now her team has them “empowered to engage in their own services.” That one change can make a big difference. The E3 project continues, with a new training cohort starting in February 2022.

 

 

2022 plans

What’s next? Read on to learn about some of our top priorities in 2022.

 

Planning icon showing a coach's clipboard with a play draw on it

Strategic planning for 2028

In 2022, NCA will kick off our next round of strategic planning, Project Advance, a truly inclusive process that will invite participation from the field, NCA staff, and national stakeholders. NCA’s Board of Directors will evaluate the feedback and develop a five-year plan that meets the needs of our memberships and positions us to respond to emerging issues.

 

Education award ribbon icon represents NCA's Standards of Accreditation2023 Standards

In 2021, NCA released the 2023 edition of our National Standards of Accreditation for Children’s Advocacy Centers. To assist members with the transition to the revised standards, we are conducting monthly webinars, working closely with Regional CACs and State Chapters to respond to training and technical assistance needs, and offering training to individual states as requested.

 

Fabric icon that represents NCA's Seamless mental health trainingSeamless mental health care

In February 2022, NCA is offering Seamless, our first multi-day national mental health training in providing comprehensive mental health care to special populations. In addition, we’re partnering with Dr. Kristi Westphaln on an exploratory study to examine what healing after abuse truly means to youth, caregivers, and multidisciplinary team partners served by CACs. We will form work groups to address disparities in medical and mental health care in CACs, train 20 CAC directors in developing and sustaining high quality mental health programs, and continue our multi-year project to train clinicians in evidence-based assessments.

 

Data icon, graphEnsuring our data have meaning

NCA has launched a multi-year project to update its twice-yearly statistics collection to review what data we collect, ensure that the data collection is aligned with National Standards of Accreditation and other key needs in the field, and expand awareness and utility of the data for our members, partners, and the public.

 

Icon of an army base representing CAC-military partnershipsStrengthening partners with the military

NCA is working with the Army, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Navy and with the Department of Defense’s Family Advocacy Program to develop memorandums of understanding (MOUs) with each branch of service. Finalizing these MOUs will make it easier for CACs to coordinate services with local military installations and ensure that children of military-affiliated families receive trauma-informed care. Our military collaborative work group is also developing a Getting Started guide to help CACs launch military partnerships and identify and track military families they serve.

 

Icon of a globe with a heart on itExpanding the CAC model in Mongolia

NCA is partnering with The Asia Foundation, which has set up a multidisciplinary task force (MDTF) to fight against human trafficking, particularly child trafficking, and conduct awareness activities in Mongolia. NCA will partner with the MDTF and The Asia Foundation to offer remote mentorship and trainings and host two study visits in the United States.

 

 

Who we are

National Children’s Alliance leads the national movement to prevent child abuse and provide support to children and families who have experienced the trauma of abuse. Together, our staff, our members, our volunteer leaders, our supporters, and our partners work to amplify children’s voices and get them the care they need to heal.

Learn more about NCA and CACs

National Children’s Alliance is a professional membership organization on a mission to make one big difference, one child at a time. We’re the force behind Children’s Advocacy Centers (CACs), where children who have been abused receive high-quality care in a kid-friendly environment, and the State Chapters that lead CACs to a comprehensive response across a given state.

NCA’s staff

Meet the team that serves Children’s Advocacy Centers and State Chapters. From the most remote rural CAC to the halls of Congress, we stand ready to help.

Our volunteer leadership

Led by 2022 President Henry Shiembob, our Board of Directors ensures that NCA’s work is informed by those working directly in the community with families every day, and with close ties with their professional communities, to provide high-quality services to children and support for CACs.

Henry Shiembob

The people who amplify our voice

Just as NCA works with Children’s Advocacy Centers and State Chapters to amplify children’s voices, our supporters and partners amplify ours. So many people shared their time, expertise, or money in 2021 that we can’t list them all. But here’s a look at some of the people who work alongside us to ensure children are heard.

A family poses for a photo outside of their home. Photo by Rajiv Perera from Unsplash

Our supporters

NCA Benefactors, $2,500+

  • Angel Publishing
  • Cambia Health Foundation
  • Kimberly Day
  • Theresa Gunnlaugsson
  • Mathias Heck, Jr.
  • Teresa Huizar
  • Henry Shiembob
  • William & Sylvia Silberstein Foundation
  • Woori Song and the Kiweenies

NCA Guardian, $1,000+

  • David & Julie Betz
  • Kevin & Tricia Dowling
  • Claudia & Ed Downs
  • Jerry Dunn
  • Jason Holmes
  • Jeffrey Noto
  • Lou Anna Red Corn
  • Thomas Stenvoll
  • Verizon Foundation c/o Cybergrants, Inc.

 

NCA Steward, $500+

  • Jane Braun
  • Alexandra Cooley
  • Whitney Dane
  • Karen Farst
  • Dimple Gupta
  • Vivian Melvin
  • Cheryl Peterson
  • Channing Petrak
  • Courtney Sames

 

NCA Protector, $250+

  • Elizabeth Brandes
  • Janice Dinkins-Davidson
  • Denise Edwards
  • Maureen Fitzgerald
  • Kim Hamm
  • Jo Ann Hammond
  • Alyson Karnath
  • Will & Emily Laird
  • Kaitlin Lounsbury
  • James Magoon
  • Jeffrey Mansell

  • Joy McGreevy
  • Michelle Miller
  • Zachary Moro
  • Julie Porterfield
  • Libby Ralston
  • Larry and Kathleen Skoczylas
  • Mark & Anne Strutz
  • Jasmine Tubbs
  • S Brette Turner
  • Rhonda Wurgler

 

NCA Friend, up to $249

  • Uma Ahluwalia
  • Geoffrey Alterman
  • Asia Atkins
  • Rebecca Benarroch
  • Natalie Berger
  • Gail Boyd
  • William Brady
  • Kayla Carr
  • Sonali CE
  • Sarah Coker-Robinson
  • Jack & Cathy Crabtree
  • Allison Crapo
  • Elizabeth & Ted Cross
  • Natalie Davidson
  • Mary Davisson
  • Steve Derene
  • John Douglas
  • Devon Eure
  • Jennifer Felice
  • Tina Filiberto
  • Janet Fine
  • Darcy Fluharty
  • Carol Folk

  • Cynthia Giroux
  • Sandra Henley
  • iRecord
  • Deana Joy
  • Christina Kirchner
  • Diana Krawisz
  • Katrina Limson
  • Jack Livingstone
  • Wendy Luikart
  • Jan Lutz
  • Joi Mackey
  • Nicholas Mangus
  • Warren Marchessault
  • Kayley Martin
  • Luke McClendon
  • Robert & Kristie McKenney
  • Alyssa Mrozek
  • Ian Neilson
  • Elizabeth Nicholson
  • Joy Oesterly
  • John Pazzaglia, Sr.
  • William Pearson
  • Alexandra Pease
  • Brenden Peterson

  • Corinn Pillsbury
  • Kim Provencher
  • Liz Provencher
  • Heather Provencher
  • Susan Pumphrey
  • Claudia Quintero
  • Denise Restuccia
  • Char Rivette
  • Gina Robertson
  • Charles Rose
  • Adam & Jennifer Rosenberg
  • Diane Scott
  • Kendra Scott
  • Sharon Spillman
  • Cindy Sweeney
  • Carole Swiecicki
  • Michele Thames
  • Alyssa Todd
  • Valerie Villalobos
  • Ryan Vogt
  • Blake Warenik
  • Nancy Williams
  • Ricky Williams

Our partners

National Mission Partners

 

 

Platinum National Corporate Partners



 


 

Gold National Corporate Partners

American Psychological Association (APA) logo

Coalition Manager

Magination Press. Books for kids from the American Psychological Association (APA)

 

National Corporate Partners





 

Sponsors and Other Corporate Partners




STM Learning

 

Academic Project Partners

  • Baylor University
  • Medical University of South Carolina
  • University of New Hampshire, Crimes Against Children Research Center
  • University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center
  • Yale Child Study Center, Yale School of Medicine

 

Regional Partners

  • Midwest Regional Children’s Advocacy Center
  • Northeast Regional Children’s Advocacy Center
  • Southern Regional Children’s Advocacy Center
  • Western Regional Children’s Advocacy Center

 

Special thanks

Many thanks to the hundreds of CAC, State Chapter, and Regional leaders and other content experts who made time in their busy schedules to help with our task forces, Collaborative Work Groups, and new educational resources in 2021. Your willingness to go above and beyond your daily work to assist NCA helps us and CACs around the country get children the support they need to thrive.

We are also very grateful to the online content creators and their communities from all over the world who helped make NCA’s first ever online charity streaming event, #SayItLouder, a wonderful success. Thank you for introducing NCA and CACs to a brand new audience, and in doing so, strengthening our efforts to amplify children’s voices and eradicate child abuse.

 

 

Statement of financial activities

Year ended October 31, 2021

Revenue, Support, and Other Changes
Grant revenue $19,282,648
NCA’s database software project 830,255
Accreditation 490,349
Conference fees 1,066,450
Membership dues 554,583
Other revenue 63,458
Contributions 496,951
Interest and dividends 1,529
Total Revenue, Support and Other Changes $22,786,223
 

 

Expenses
Program services–Grants $16,203,996
Program services 1,266,577
Public awareness 543,616
Management and general 1,500,858
Fundraising 183,102
Total Expenses $19,698,149
 

 

Statement of Financial Position
Assets
Net assets (beginning of year) $2,457,901
Net assets (end of year) 5,545,975
Change in Net Assets $3,088,074

 

 

Get involved

Want to help? Get involved in the way that best suits your time and talents

Donate

Make a donation to support our work.

Start a fundraiser and invite friends and family to give.

 

Advocate

Learn how you can help advocate on behalf of Children’s Advocacy Centers.

 

Follow

Sign up for our newsletter to get monthly updates on our work. (Click the link and scroll down to the bottom of the page to subscribe.)

Like us on Facebook, on Twitter, and Instagram and share our posts with your own circle of friends.

 

Listen

Subscribe to One in Ten to hear from the brightest minds working to end child abuse. And like our podcast page on Facebook!

 

Raise awareness

Find out what to do if you suspect a child is being abused.

Share your story of surviving child sexual abuse and help let other survivors know that they’re not alone.

 

Support local CACs

Use our interactive map to find a Children’s Advocacy Center near you and support their work on behalf of children in your hometown.

 

Learn more

Learn more about the work of NCA and CACs through our website at nationalchildrensalliance.org. Questions? Contact us at membership@nca-online.org.