THE FIELD CENTER
for Children's Policy, Practice & Research

Technical Assistance to Montgomery County (PA)
to Develop a Child Advocacy Center

The Field Center was awarded a grant from the North Penn Community Health Foundation to provide technical assistance to Montgomery County, Pennsylvania in developing a child advocacy center for victims of sexual and severe physical abuse. The Child Advocacy Center of Montgomery County (CAC), to be called Mission Kids, is a collaborative effort of the Montgomery County District Attorney, the Police Chiefs of Montgomery County, and the Montgomery County Office of Children and Youth to provide child-friendly interviews of victims of child abuse by representatives of the District Attorney’s Office, law enforcement, and social services working as a multidisciplinary team (MDT).  The Field Center is assisting in the formulation and development of a best-practice model in accordance with national standards which meets the specific needs of Montgomery County.

The Child Advocacy Center interview process eliminates the need for representatives from each system to conduct separate, distinct interviews of child victims by providing a single interview by a trained forensic clinician behind a one-way mirror, observable by the other MDT members.  The MDT approach to child interviewing addresses several critical components key to the diagnosis and treatment of this population.  This coordination among systems responding to child abuse provides more efficient, thorough, high-quality investigations and prosecutions that assure that child victims receive effective, sensitive and immediate support in a setting that puts the child’s needs first.  It offers a location where the services of multiple disciplines can be provided.

Nationally, the CAC model is viewed as effective, efficient, and sensitive to the needs of children and families in the investigation and prosecution of child abuse cases.  Not only does a single forensic interview spare traumatized children from the additional trauma of multiple interviews, it eliminates the problem of prosecuting a case with potentially different interviews being presented in the courtroom and often leads to a plea bargain with the defendant.  The CAC model improves professional skills and promotes a collaborative relationship among the various systems involved with child abuse cases. This often has a positive effect in the broader community when these professionals interact outside of the MDT setting. The implementation of an MDT model to child abuse investigations will result in a more efficient use of county resources.

The Field Center is providing the Montgomery County Child Advocacy Center with technical assistance in its formative development of the most effective and efficient model of service to address the needs of child victims of sexual and serious physical abuse.  To that end, the Field Center is providing assistance with:

1. Researching best practice and CAC evaluation studies;
2. Identifying nationals standards established for Child Advocacy Centers by National Children’s Alliance and using standards as a benchmark for program development;
3. Conducting a needs assessment which will review history of reporting, investigating and prosecuting child abuse cases in Montgomery County;
4. Assisting in developing organizational structure, including Board development and staffing needs;
5. Developing protocols for child abuse investigation based upon resources available in Montgomery County and structure of agencies in different disciplines involved in child abuse investigations;
6. Conducting a feasibility study specific to the Montgomery County community;
7. Assisting in the selection and design of the CAC facility;
8. Developing recommendations for MDT training;
9. Identifying mental health needs, resources, and protocol;
10. Recommending medical protocol, including where exams will be conducted, who will conduct exams,  and equipment needs for CAC;
11. Addressing Management Information System (MIS) needs to allow all disciplines to share relevant information;
12. Identifying capital and operating budget needs and potential resources.

The Field Center is utilizing its own national child abuse experts in the fields of law, medicine, social policy, research and clinical services, graduate student resources through the University of Pennsylvania, and CAC experts in the professional community to achieve its goals.