The District Of Columbia Childrens Advocacy Center

Clinical services: safe shores' clinical services program helps families on the road to healing from trauma and abuse by providing evidence-based trauma-informed mental health services. Within the framework of trauma- focused cognitive behavioral therapy (tfcbt) the clinical services team provides a safe space for children to identify and overcome challenges, develop positive coping skills and build healthy relationships through talk therapy, play therapy, art therapy, sand-tray therapy and other modalities provided to child victims, their non-offending caregivers, and siblings.

Forensic services: safe shores' forensic services program (fsp) coordinates and conducts neutral, fact-finding and developmentally-sensitive (forensic) interviews with children affected by abuse and child witnesses to violence on behalf of fellow multidisciplinary team member agencies. The goal of forensic interviews is to ensure that childrens' voices are heard and to minimize the number of times a child must recount any incident of abuse. Forensic services also supports multidisciplinary team collaboration, updating protocols and ensuring best practices. On occasion upon request by law enforcement, fsp conducts forensic interviews with intellectually disabled adults.

Teen advocacy initiative adolescents between the ages of 13 to 17 who have been sexually assaulted in the district of columbia have the right to an advocate pursuant to dc's sexual assault and victims' rights amendment act of 2019. Safe shores teen advocates are on call around the clock to be dispatched to help teen survivors in the midst of crisis understand their options and support them in their choices. Teen advocates travel to where the survivors is--at a hospital or elsewhere in the community, as soon as the crime is reported. Examples of the support a teen advocate might provide include referrals to medical care, mental health care, or legal aid. Prevention and outreach program - safe shores' prevention and outreach program is rooted in the belief that adults are the first line of defense in protecting children from abuse. Deploying evidence-informed training curricula and also by participating in community events to provide basic information to the public, safe shores provides adults who work with and/or care for children in various settings with information about the impact of child abuse and child trauma and equips them with skills to recognize, respond to, and prevent abuse. Mdt advancement and support program -safe shores serves as the hub of the wheel of dc's legally mandated, multi-disciplinary team (mdt) response to children impacted by abuse in the district of columbia. Safe shores' coordination of the mdt's joint work with child victims and cultivation of collaborative working relationships among the various mdt agencies improves the public system's response to child abuse victims and their families in the district of columbia. By helping public agencies with different mandates and professional cultures work together more effectively and providing them with up-to-date information about changes in the field of child protection and updated knowledge about child health and development, safe shores strengthens these professionals' skills and knowledge, thereby fostering enhanced and cost-saving system efficiency while keeping the needs of child victims at the center of this work. Maintaining a healthy mdt partnership for nearly three decades requires constant and focused attention, particularly since personnel and leadership at public agencies change regularly. There is a need for ongoing orientation, training, and relationship-building to achieve optimal outcomes for victimized children. Our mdt advancement and support program is dedicated to meeting this need.