History

Children's Advocacy Centers of Oklahoma, Inc. (CACO) 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 in Oklahoma. In 2009, these fully accredited centers served approximately 4000 children. Of these, about sixty 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.

Contributions

The primary function of this office is to assist centers in developing and strengthening their programs and facilities. The office also coordinates and provides training by seeking experts within the various disciplines of centers and teams. Additionally, the office facilitates communication between centers to gain and distribute the collective knowledge of centers throughout the state.