Dear Friends of Children,

It is with great pleasure that I would like to introduce you to the new Children’s Advocacy Centers of Illinois Executive Director, Kim Mangiaracino. Kim will begin this position on April 1st as I exit this role on March 31st (more on that to come in an upcoming newsletter).

Kim came to CACI in October 2014 as the Training Coordinator and has been, most recently, the MDT Coordinator. Previous to employment at CACI, Kim was a forensic interviewer at Madison County CAC. It is obvious with this full cadre of experience; Kim has all the background necessary to bring some great leadership to Illinois.

More importantly, almost more than all the experience, is Kim’s passion for the work we do. She is a stalwart and loud cheerleader for CACs and her vision coupled with the passion and experience certainly paves the way for great things ahead.

Certainly she will need your support as well, so please be open to sharing concerns and comments with her. April 1 st is right around the corner!

Welcome Kim, to this new adventure, your leadership will serve us well!


Billie Larkin
CACI Executive Director
CACI has a position announcement for the MDT Coordinator.
 
This position is a full time, grant funded position with full benefits. For a full job description and more information, please visit our website here .
 
If you are interested please send an email with a cover letter and resume to  [email protected]  no later than Monday February 5th by 4:30 pm.
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9th ANNUAL CHAMPIONS OF CHILDREN CONFERENCE
EARLY BIRD REGISTRATION ENDS FEBRUARY 1ST!!!!!
This two day MDT enrichment conference features highly regarded speakers in their fields representing each discipline, with four separate tracks for participants to choose from that will best meet their professional development needs.

EarlyBird pricing ends February 1, 2018!!!!

The full brochure,sessions descriptions and registration link can be found HERE .
Welcome Dr. Channing Petrak to NCA's Board of Directors
This year, Accredited CACs, Chapters, and current NCA Board Members nominated 6 outstanding qualified applicants for the position of Medical Representative and voted to choose a candidate to serve on the Board. Our thanks to those who nominated these qualified applicants, and to the representatives of Accredited Members and Chapters for their votes.

With that, please welcome Dr. Channing Petrak to NCA's Board of Directors! She joins the Board January 1, 2018. The previous day, December 31, 2017, our current medical representative, Dr. Karen Farst, rotates off the board. We and the entire CAC movement thank Dr. Farst for her years of service on the NCA Board. 

Dr. Petrak serves as medical director of the Pediatric Resource Center at the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria (UICOM-P), where she is also an assistant professor of clinical pediatrics. With more than a decade of experience in the CAC world, Dr. Petrak serves as the medical multi-disciplinary team member of multiple CACs in Illinois, and works closely with Children's Advocacy Centers of Illinois, the State Chapter, on a variety of efforts. She is currently working with the Chapter on legislative advocacy to allow CACs to provide medical services onsite. 

An experienced board leader, she also currently serves on the boards of the Illinois Children's Justice Task Force and the Peoria Region Child Death Review Team, and is an  ex officio  member of the Pediatric Resource Center Community Board.

Dr. Petrak received her medical degree from Southern Illinois University School of Medicine. She completed her pediatric residency at UICOM-P in May 2003 and began working for the Pediatric Resource Center. In 2011, Dr. Petrak became medical director of the Pediatric Resource Center. Dr. Petrak holds a Bachelor of Arts in economics from the University of Illinois and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Illinois Springfield. Dr. Petrak is board-certified in general pediatrics and child abuse pediatrics. She is a member the Ray E. Helfer Society, an honorary society of physicians seeking to provide leadership to enhance the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of child abuse and neglect.

In addition to serving on NCA's Board of Directors, she will also serve on the Physical Abuse Collaborative Work Group.
Your support of our services will truly benefit the
39 Children’s Advocacy Centers (CACs) throughout the state by training and working with MDT members.

Children’s Advocacy Centers provide a bright light in a part of our society that is often dark and depressing. Let’s work together to make sure that we reflect this light to others and continue to challenge ourselves and others to help child victims of abuse become thriving survivors.

The 11,000 children that CACs served were trained by our office in forensic interviewing and advocacy, as well as ongoing support to the MDT members.

Your one-time gift or monthly pledge is a charitable donation that is deductible.
A reminder about peer review and ongoing training for forensic interviewers:

It is required by the NCA 2017 Standards for Accredited Members that trained forensic interviewers are to attend Peer Review 2 times a year, and recommended by CACI to present at least once a year.

Some benefits of attending peer review are:

  • Peer review serves to reinforce the methodologies utilized as well as provide support and problem-solving for shared challenges. 
  • Peer review includes participants and facilitators who are trained to conduct child forensic interviews. Structured peer review includes: 1. Ongoing opportunities to network with, and share learning and challenges with peers 2. Review and performance feedback of actual interviews in a professional and confidential setting 3. Discussion of current relevant research articles and materials 4. Training opportunities specific to forensic interviewing of children and the CAC-specific methodologies. 

An additional requirement for individuals with forensic interviewing responsibilities they must demonstrate participation in ongoing education in the field of child maltreatment and/or forensic interviewing consisting of a minimum of 8 contact hours every 2 years.

CACI strives to assist all forensic interviewers in maintaining these peer review and training requirements. Please contact [email protected] if you are not in a peer review group and would like to be connected with the peer review facilitator in your area. 

Cara

This information was provided by the 2017 Standards for Accredited Members
REGISTRATION OPEN NOW!
CLICK HERE
Applicants must be endorsed by the Children's Advocacy Center in the applicant's service area.  

All participants must attend all five days of training in order to receive a certificate of completion. If someone is unable to make this commitment, he or she should not apply.

Registration MUST meet a minimum of 20 participants. If 20 participants have not registered by March 30th, the event will be cancelled, all participants will be notified, and registration fees will be returned. 

There is a promo code for attorneys wanting to attend this course. The attorney track is held Monday-Wednesday, and attorneys must be present the entire 3 days to recieve credit. Please contact cara@cacionline for promo code and pricing. 

MCLE's for attorneys and CEU's for social workers will be available pending approval.  

If you have any questions, please contact Cara Vock at 815-973-6777 or [email protected]
 Looking for Resources to Support 
Human Trafficking Prevention Month?

CALiO™ has more than 150 publications for you to use!

OMS Spotlight

Directors, OMS Coordinators, and MDT Coordinators,

Illinois CACs are doing a great job with Initial Caregiver Surveys for OMS, and that is great! Another great tool with OMS is the MDT survey. There is such valuable information that can be shared with staff, board members, funders, and the community. 

NCA and CACI recommend sending surveys to MDT's 1 to 2 times per year.  This is a great opportunity to gauge CACs effectiveness with MDT’s and the MDT’s perspective of your CAC.  This information can be used to plan trainings, can be a platform for team and staff discussion, and to be used for protocol review and development. 

Check out what some Illinois MDT members are saying.
Do you know what your MDT has to say?

“I would not be able to do my job without the CAC. The CAC provides me with evidence that I would not be able to obtain otherwise and the CAC is staffed with the most dedicated, knowledgeable and compassionate professionals.”

"The CAC model is an excellent and best way to treat and interview children.”

“Working as a team to me is very helpful and helps with better case outcomes especially as it relates of sex abuse victims.”

“I have been a police officer for 13 years and in my opinion this is the single greatest thing that we have done for victim representation. Everyone benefits and there are no drawbacks.”


If you have questions about the MDT surveys, please feel free to reach out to me via email at [email protected] .

Thanks, Kim

DID YOU KNOW?

VOCA funding increased jobs by 91 CAC positions in Illinois

The grant monitors made 11 site visits in the first six months of VOCA funding. 
(9 more will be conducted before July 1, 2018. A schedule of site visits will be sent out in February.)

Reminder

Monthly Reimbursement forms are due by the 10th of each month and we no longer require supporting documents or time sheets
"VOCA CHANGES LIVES"
CACI staff received the below email, with the above subject line, from Madison County CAC Executive Director, Carrie Cohan. With her permission, we are sharing a portion of it. Please note, the * situations that are being referred to are not being shared here due to privacy.
Hi All,

I know all of you work very hard behind the scenes so that the VOCA dollars come down to the local CACs. I am one of the CACs who did not have VOCA dollars before this opportunity. Our CAC has dramatically changed since the influx of these dollars and we are now helping children and families in ways that was never before possible. I wrote this up for our DCFS report, and wanted to share it with you. I am so pleased and proud that * situations like this are now possible, that children and families can really get the support and help they deserve. I want you to see an example of how we are now changing lives in new and amazing ways. And I want to thank you for the work you do so that this is possible.




All Our Children’s Advocacy Center were the recipients of a generous donation from Richard and Sandy Barretto. The Barretto’s are the founders of Word Systems, Inc. With over 40 years in business they are very happy to assist clients in protecting kids and insure that they are not exposed to some of the tragedies that are unfortunately prevalent in society. IRecord is at the forefront of the battle to assist law enforcement and Child Advocacy Centers in their never ending battle to help reduce this element from society. 

The Baretto’s generous donation allowed AOCAC to purchase new office furniture and update their waiting room to be more inviting to children and their family members. The Baretto’s also purchased 3 HP Surface computers to add to the AOCAC IRecord equipment to expand their recording capabilities to conduct multiple forensic interviews at one time.

We’re thrilled to announce that this year’s MEN WHO COOK for the Will County Children's Advocacy Center fundraiser will have two bidg changes: #1 - Moving to Chicagoland Speedway to accommodate the growing number of attendees (1,100+ last year) & #2 - Moving to a new month: will be held in SEPTEMBER!
Watch for more information, coming soon!
It’s estimated that for every 1 report of child abuse 2 go unreported. Knowing the warning signs of child abuse and who to contact if you suspect child abuse could save a life.

Visit our new CAC office in Evanston on Thursday, February 1 between 8:30 AM – 2:00 PM and talk with our therapists, Cara and Abe. They can answer questions, tell you more about our therapy services and connect you with resources to help children in the community.

Register below.