Georgia Center for Child Advocacy

Note: The organization did not respond to this question.

Note: The organization did not respond to this question.

The Georgia Center for Child Advocacy provides formal and informal leadership development opportunities. Members of the leadership team have participated in yearlong leadership training opportunities. Outside facilitators led two-day offsite retreat for leadership team focused on improving employee engagement and team building. During this two-day offsite retreat, we reviewed results from employee engagement survey, developed and prioritized improvement opportunities, identified teams to work on projects to improve employee engagement and set an implementation timeline. Over the past 18 months, we have made significant progress in improving employee engagement and have improved many internal processes and procedures.

GCCA works with partners to provide intervention, collaboration and therapy for children who have been sexually abused or trafficked. Staff regularly present at conferences. Last year, we presented over 20 sessions at conferences across the country. We hosted staff from other countries to share how we help and support trafficking victims. Year-round social media activity raises awareness and lets the community know about resources available to prevent child sexual abuse. We also work with print and tv outlets. We educated nearly 200,000 adults across Georgia on childhood abuse and trauma, protective measures. In 2022, we trained over 400 frontline professionals working with at-risk children. We work with CACs across the state to improve service levels. We met with local, state and federal officials to educate them on the issue of child sexual abuse and policies that affect our work to help children heal from abuse.

Over the past 18 months, GCCA has experienced an influx of clients who experienced significantly more trauma. Clients entering our doors have experienced a greater number of traumas and a greater level of traumatic stress. We responded to this community need by significantly increasing our advocacy services for children and families. The Advocacy Department launched to focus on the medium and long term intensive needs of families. This specialized team has allowed us to build capacity to give more at-risk families the specialized care they deserve. Since its inception, we have provided over 4800 units of services to 75 families needing intensive support, an average monthly increase of over 254%. In 41% of the cases supported by our Advocacy department, the alleged offender was someone within the home – resulting in greater stressors surrounding family needs. By providing families and children with additional support, we are able to help families stabilize so they can continue their healing journey.