Children's Advocacy Centers offer a new way of serving abused children through a comprehensive approach to services for victims and their families.

A Child Advocacy Center provides a comfortable, private, child-friendly setting that is both physically and psychosocially safe for children.

CACO is organized as a State Chapter of the National Children’s Alliance. NCA is a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to provide training, technical assistance and networking opportunities to communities seeking to plan, establish and improve Children's Advocacy Centers. 

Our mission is to ensure the development, growth and continuation of Children’s Advocacy Centers in Oklahoma.

Children's Advocacy Centers of Oklahoma, Inc. was established in 1999 as a 501(C) 3. This voluntary organization serves Child Advocacy Centers (CAC's) and Multidisciplinary Teams (MDT's) in their efforts to provide services to suspected or confirmed victims of child abuse in a child-friendly environment while coordinating the corresponding investigation. The combined approach of CAC's and MDT's is based on the close cooperation of teams comprised of representatives from the Department of Human Services, law enforcement, prosecution, mental health, the medical community, and child advocacy center personnel. This minimizes trauma to children while addressing their needs and strengthening future prosecutions.

 

At present, there are eighteen fully accredited member centers and three developing centers in Oklahoma. In 2008, these fully accredited centers served approximately 5044 children. Of these, about sixty-nine percent were victims of sexual abuse. The remaining children represent physical abuse and/or neglect. Similar numbers of children have been served in each of the years for which CACO has collected data. New centers will be added in areas that do not have ready access to center services at this time. Considering this, it is fair to say that as the number of centers increases, the number of children served will increase as well. CACO's goal is to grow the total number of accredited centers in the state to twenty-nine.

427 K SW, Ardmore, Oklahoma 73401

Tel: 580-504-0683 • Fax: 580-223-0075 • caco1999@sbcglobal.net

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