Members of the Multidisciplinary Teams work together to reduce the secondary trauma young victims may experience from navigating a confusing system, while enhancing the system’s ability to respond to child maltreatment. The Connecticut Children’s Alliance itself is a membership organization, a team of coordinators, program managers, and management directors of each of the 16 Multidisciplinary Teams (8 of which are Child Advocacy Centers) in Connecticut.

Each Multidisciplinary Team is comprised of child protective services, law enforcement, prosecution, medical and mental health providers, forensic interviewers, victim advocates, and others who work together to coordinate the investigation of allegations of child abuse and provide the child victim and family with support services. Currently, there are Multidisciplinary Teams in 16 locations throughout the state covering catchment areas defined by the judiciary:

Children’s Advocacy Centers are child focused, facility based programs in which representatives from many disciplines work together to conduct interviews and make team decisions on cases of child abuse. CAC models for child abuse intervention are proven and effective, bringing together trained professions to investigate and provide medical and mental healthcare as well as support child victims of abuse, while holding offenders accountable through the court system. CAC locations are child focused and designed to a sense of safety and security for child victims.