National Children’s Alliance Reaccreditation Announcement
We are excited to announce that we were recently accredited by our national association, National Children’s Alliance (NCA)!
This accomplishment is particularly important to us because it denotes that we have the highest level of service excellence and that we put the needs of child victims of abuse first.
The process to be accredited (in our case, reaccredited) is rigorous and requires compliance with 10 national standards of accreditation to ensure effective, efficient, and consistent delivery of services. We see this process, which happens every 5-years, as a way to stay current with best practices for intervening, treating, and preventing child abuse and neglect.
As part of our application, Children’s Center must provide evidence of effective involvement in a county wide Multidisciplinary Team. This team includes representatives from law enforcement, the District Attorney’s (DA) office, the Oregon Department of Human Services, plus schools, organizations serving Latinx communities, and other family-focused nonprofits who work collaboratively in child abuse investigation, prosecution, and treatment.
NCA 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. Additionally, Children’s Center participated in an in-depth site review.
As the national association and accrediting body for the over 750 children’s advocacy centers serving each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia, NCA is considered the national authority on multidisciplinary approaches to supporting child victims of abuse. Needless to say, we are extremely proud to have received their highest level of membership in being awarded Reaccreditation.
We want to give a big shout-out to Dr. Cathy Lang, our Medical Director for her leadership in what was an almost year-long process. Cathy and her team were able to spotlight the excellence Children’s Center staff bring to every aspect of our organization.
“This award of reaccreditation from our national association,” says Executive Director, Karen Rush, “validates our organization’s dedication to proven effective approaches of child abuse intervention and prevention.”