A CAC, at its most basic, is a facility to which youth victims of (or witnesses to) crimes are referred to gather information and set up support services. In Colorado, there should be one CAC for each judicial district. Our judicial district however - district 14, comprised of Routt, Moffat, and Grand counties - is one of a few districts that does not have a CAC.
Today, child victims are forced to visit CACs on the front range, in other mountain communities, or further west to get support and pursue justice. A traumatized child may be bounced between stakeholders - from the police, to the Department of Human Services, to the District Attorney's office, and so on - where they're compelled to retell their traumatizing story repeatedly.
With a local Child Advocacy Center, children are instead brought to a single location, specifically designed to be comfortable for youth, within the familiar environs of their own community. There, a highly trained interviewer will, with input from all stakeholders, conduct one comprehensive Forensic Interview. If needed, medical exams may be performed on site. Afterwards, the child and his or her family will be offered wraparound advocacy and mental health service referrals.
Educating our community through an informative video about what a CAC does and how it serves our community is the first step for this project. In addition to building knowledge and support locally, our video narrative can speak to the value of local services being enhanced through local collaborations with other nonprofits. This grant will fund the use of production professionals to create the video.
Rotarians will be involved in this project by providing input into the creation of the educational video, as well as serving as a primary "reviewing - feedback" source once the video is completed. It is expected that this video can also be utilized by other clubs in our district.
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