Lighthouse Children’s Advocacy Center earns national accreditation

Published 6:45 pm Monday, November 14, 2016

AMERICUS — Lighthouse CAC has been awarded accreditation by National Children’s Alliance following an extensive application and site review process. As the accrediting agency for Children’s Advocacy Centers (CAC) across the country, National Children’s Alliance awards various levels of accreditation and membership to centers responding to allegations of child abuse in ways that are effective and efficient, and put the needs of child victims of abuse first. Accreditation is the highest level of membership with National Children’s Alliance and denotes excellence in service provision.
Lighthouse CAC was founded in October 2012. The center has received an outpouring of community and agency support over the last four years, and has served hundreds of suspected child abuse victims and their families in the Southwestern Judicial Circuit (Lee, Sumter, Schley, Macon, Webster and Stewart counties). As an accredited member of National Children’s Alliance, Lighthouse CAC is dedicated to providing comprehensive, coordinated and compassionate services to victims of child abuse.
National Children’s Alliance awards Accredited Membership based on a CAC’s compliance with 10 national standards of accreditation to ensure effective, efficient and consistent delivery of services to child abuse victims. National Children’s Alliance updated these standards in 2010 to reflect the most recent evidence-based practices in the field of child abuse intervention and prevention. According to these standards, accredited members must utilize a functioning and effective multidisciplinary team approach to work collaboratively in child abuse investigation, prosecution, and treatment. National Children’s Alliance also considers standards regarding a center’s cultural competency and diversity, forensic interviews, victim support and advocacy, medical evaluation, therapeutic intervention, and child focused setting.
“As a team of individuals dedicated to responding to child abuse, we recognize the importance of accreditation from National Children’s Alliance and supporting the multidisciplinary team approach. We are very fortunate to work with an amazing multidisciplinary team of professionals in our six county region, dedicated to child protection. Accreditation not only validates our organization’s proven effective approach to responding to allegations of child abuse, but also provides consistency across the child advocacy center movement as a whole,” said Amy Boney, Lighthouse CAC director.
“Lighthouse CAC is to be commended for its excellent work serving victims of child abuse. As the national association and accrediting body for Children’s Advocacy Centers across the country, our goal is to ensure that every victim of child abuse has access to high quality services that result from professional collaboration,” remarked Teresa Huizar, executivedDirector of National Children’s Alliance.
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