The Maryland Children’s Alliance consists of Child Advocacy Centers throughout the state of Maryland. There are currently twenty one member centers. Seven of these centers are accredited members of the National Children’s Alliance and three are associate members. All NCA accredited members have the following program components in place at their centers: Child-Appropriate/Child-Friendly Facility, Multidisciplinary Team (MDT), Organizational Capacity, Cultural Competency and Diversity, Forensic Interviews, Medical Evaluation, Therapeutic Intervention, Victim Support/Advocacy, Case Review, Case Tracking. Associate members have completed substantial planning towards the establishment of a fully functioning CAC and have established a multidisciplinary team for investigations, have begun conducting joint forensic interviews, and have based their CAC program in a facility. To find out more about the National Children’s Alliance and the levels of membership please visit their website at www.nca-online.org.

Executive Board

President: Linda Holmes - Carroll County, MD

Vice-President: Roland Denton - Howard County, MD

Treasurer: David Betz – Harford County, MD

Secretary: Brenda Peterson – Montgomery County, MD

Member at Large: Linda Cowan-Brown, Baltimore City, MD

WHAT IS A CAC?

Child Advocacy Centers (CAC’s) are child-friendly facilities where child victims of maltreatment may be interviewed, undergo medical examinations, and receive therapy.

Child Advocacy Centers stress coordination of investigation and intervention services by bringing together professionals and agencies as a multi-disciplinary team to create a child-focused approach to child abuse cases. This multi-disciplinary team is comprised of members from many disciplines including law enforcement, social services, prosecution, mental health, medical and victim advocacy who work together in the investigation, treatment, management and prosecution of child abuse cases. The main goal of all CAC’s is to ensure that children are not re-victimized by the very system designed to protect them.

CAC’s in Maryland are locally-based and each is uniquely designed to best meet the needs of its own community, so no two CACs look exactly alike.