CACC Corner: Grants, Meetings and More!

The Children’s Advocacy Centers of California (CACC) is a program of CALICO that supports and grows centers like CALICO throughout the state. Its goal is that one day every child in California who has been abused will have equal access to the type of high-quality, evidence-based services CALICO provides. Even though it is still early in 2018, CACC has already achieved some very exciting – and important – work for children’s advocacy centers (CACs) in California. CACC was thrilled to assist the California Office of Emergency Services in creating a grant program designed specifically to support the services of CACs throughout California – to the tune of $11 million in total! This is a huge step forward for CACs in California, and will provide much needed resources to allow centers to reach even more children who have been hurt. CACC was instrumental in advocating for these funds. CACs in California are elated that the importance of their work has been recognized by such an influential state agency.

But CACC hasn’t just been focused on growing funding for centers that aid abused children. It has also been busy creating networking opportunities for child abuse professionals throughout the state. In January, CACC coordinated meetings in Santa Cruz, Hanford and Van Nuys. These meetings allowed centers to come together with others in their region, share new developments and discuss current issues, trends and best practices. CACC staff saw a beautiful tree sculpture that children can sit in at the Santa Cruz center, learned of the great work done by emerging centers in the Central Valley and participated is a very enlightening training on gender hosted by the Van Nuys center. There is wonderful and innovative work being done by CACs across California!

CACC’s work is not done, though. During the next few months, it will roll out a new website and listserv, prepare to host its Annual Summit, and more. Watch this corner of our newsletter for more exciting CACC news!