Healing, Justice, & Trust 2018

How CACs prove (and improve) their work

Children’s Advocacy Centers (CACs) provide children and families with healing and justice in a setting they can trust. We know they do because of nearly 70,000 survey responses we collected in 2017 from caregivers and partners for this 2018 report.

NCA’s Outcome Measurement System (OMS) helps CACs define their successes in serving children and families while helping them benchmark their progress against the work of a nationwide movement. This rich 2018 dataset from 744 CACs demonstrates the value of the work CACs provide to children and families and the success of the CAC model in the eyes of the partners that make it possible.

This two-page brief highlights how the CAC model works, its successful outcomes, the momentum of our movement, and the need for continued and expanded support to CACs serving child victims of abuse

How do CACs use OMS?

OMS is one of the most requested and widely used membership benefits provided by the National Children’s Alliance. Developed in Texas in 2009 and then offered by NCA to CACs in other states starting in 2012, its success demonstrates the growing need for a unified system for evaluating CACs on an individual, state, and national level. It provides the opportunity for each CAC to not only measure their own performance, but also benchmark themselves against the field. Hundreds of centers across all 50 states (and a growing number of international locations) have used OMS to give families and team members a voice in the CAC process, which in turn allows centers to demonstrate their success and find areas for improvement.

OMS allows CACs to report on survey items designed to capture two measurable outcomes:

  1. The CAC facilitates healing for children and caregivers.
  2. The MDT approach results in more collaborative and efficient case investigations.

For more information about the Outcome Measurement System, please contact our Membership team at membership@nca-online.org.

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