WHO WE ARE
Southwest Mississippi Children’s Advocacy Center (SWMSCAC) is a non-profit agency established in 1999 and is a member of the National Children’s Alliance. We provide a variety of services under one umbrella to childhood victims of abuse in our local communities and their families at no cost to them. We serve as a central hub for Pike, Lincoln, Amite, Walthall, and Copiah counties using a multidisciplinary approach which prioritizes the child by assisting him/her with trauma recovery and ensuring future safety as we work to prosecute offenders. Our multidisciplinary team (MDT) consists of law enforcement agencies, child protection services, forensic interviewers, mental/medical health services, prosecution, and victim advocacy. In all that we do here at SWMSCAC, our ultimate focus is on helping victims become children again.
WHAT WE DO
OUR MISSION
The mission of Southwest Mississippi Children’s Advocacy Center is to provide a safe, non-threatening place for child abuse victims and their families to receive a comprehensive array of services, which include the initial interview, court preparation, referral services, and on-site therapy services.
Services available at the Center will be focused on providing victims and their families with treatment, education, and support, while effectively coordinating available community resources. The support given to child victims helps begin the recovery process and also facilitates their movement through the criminal justice system. The Center will strive to provide, in all of its programs and services, a community based response to the epidemic of child abuse through treatment and prevention of re-victimization.
Services available at the Center will be focused on providing victims and their families with treatment, education, and support, while effectively coordinating available community resources. The support given to child victims helps begin the recovery process and also facilitates their movement through the criminal justice system. The Center will strive to provide, in all of its programs and services, a community based response to the epidemic of child abuse through treatment and prevention of re-victimization.
BENEFITS OF A CAC
OUR PROCESS
STATISTICS
WHAT IS A CHILD ADVOCACY CENTER?
In 1985, Former Congressman Robert E. "Bud" Cramer (AL), who was then a District Attorney in Madison County, Alabama, saw the need to create a better system to help abused children. The social service and the criminal justice systems, at the time, were not working together in an effective manner that children could trust, adding to the children's emotional distress, and creating a segmented, repetitious, and often frightening experience for the child victims.
The CAC model of a Multidisciplinary Team (MDT) approach, developed through the vision of Former Congressman Cramer and a group of key individuals, pulled together law enforcement, criminal justice, child protective services, and medical and mental health workers onto one coordinated team. Thus, the National Children’s Advocacy Center was born!
The National Children’s Advocacy Center (NCAC), located in Huntsville, Alabama, revolutionized the United States’ response to child sexual abuse. Since its creation in 1985, the NCAC has served as a model for the 1000+ Children’s Advocacy Centers (CACs) now operating in the United States, including Southwest Mississippi Children's Advocacy Center!
The CAC model of a Multidisciplinary Team (MDT) approach, developed through the vision of Former Congressman Cramer and a group of key individuals, pulled together law enforcement, criminal justice, child protective services, and medical and mental health workers onto one coordinated team. Thus, the National Children’s Advocacy Center was born!
The National Children’s Advocacy Center (NCAC), located in Huntsville, Alabama, revolutionized the United States’ response to child sexual abuse. Since its creation in 1985, the NCAC has served as a model for the 1000+ Children’s Advocacy Centers (CACs) now operating in the United States, including Southwest Mississippi Children's Advocacy Center!
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