Take Action!

Join the Cricket center and other Maryland CAC’s

SEX OFFENDER LAWS WON'T HELP UNLESS OFFENDERS ARE CONVICTED

SUPPORT HB1043 / SB796 - Child Advocacy Centers

 Ensure that CACs continue to exist and respond to child sexual abuse by placing them in statute. Child Advocacy Centers (CAC's) are currently discretionary. Placing the CAC's in statute prevents their elimination and helps assure that investigations in child sexual abuse cases are handled by experts.

 Help establish and support developing CAC's so sexually abused children in all communities have access to CAC's.

  Allocate unspent victim services funding to Child Advocacy Centers to help sexually abused children and to convict sex offenders.

Click to read the text of SB796 here

RESPOND TO CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE BY HELPING CHILDREN AND HELPING PROSECUTORS

Child Advocacy Centers (CACs) are child friendly facilities where victims of child sexual abuse are interviewed, undergo medical examinations, and receive therapy at the same time that their cases are investigated for possible prosecution or Department of Social Services intervention.

CACs are child-centered, multi-disciplinary programs that bring together child protective services (CPS), local law enforcement, prosecutors, child advocates, and community service providers. CACs ensure that children are not re-victimized by the very system designed to protect them. CAC members are trained to interview children in developmentally appropriate ways that help children and stand up to cross-examination.

Worcester CAC is a proud Associate member of the National Children's Alliance (NCA) & a member  of Maryland Children’s Alliance (MCA)  non-profit coalitions of child advocacy centers. MCA and its member agencies work to create a child-focused system that protects children, collects reliable and admissible evidence, and prevents offenders from abusing again. For more information, contact your representative.

Maryland Children's Alliance • PO Box 1112 • Bel Air, MD 21014 • 410-877-5376 • www.mdcha.org