The mission of the Cameron County Children’s Advocacy Center (CCCAC) is to advocate for child victims of abuse through prevention, intervention, and treatment. The Center’s staff is dedicated to the dissemination of prevention information as well as other educational material. The Center provides a child friendly, nurturing environment that facilitates a coordinated and efficient multi-disciplinary intervention process and represents a commitment to provide accessibility to high quality legal, psychological, social, and medical services to the abused child(ren) and their supportive family members.
History
The Cameron County Children’s Advocacy Centers (CCCAC) was created to address the need for a child-friendly, non-threatening environment where child victims (ages 2-17) of physical and sexual abuse could tell their stories. Before the Cameron County Children’s Advocacy Center opened its doors children who were suspected of being abused were transported from agency to agency where countless strangers asked unthinkable questions, requiring the child to re-live the terror and shame over and over again. It was also apparent that as each agency was required to conduct its own investigation. The cases were often prolonged over a long period of time. When the cases were eventually closed, there was no place where children or families to go if they needed further help.
Consequently, after the heartbreaking death of a little girl at the hands of her mother in Cameron County, a group of concerned citizens recognized the system’s problems and looked for solutions. They discovered that other communities had found a viable alternative to this threatening adult environment that child victims must enter in the form of a “children’s advocacy center.” These dedicated volunteers established the Cameron County Children’s Advocacy Center (CCCAC) as a 501(c) 3 non-profit organization. In November 1998, the CCCAC opened the doors of its first facility, Monica’s House, in Brownsville, Texas. The house is dedicated to the memory of a four year old girl who lost her life at the hands of her mother because of child abuse and neglect. In its first year, 495 child victims were seen, but because of facility limitations and the relatively large size of the county, a second site, Maggie’s House was opened in northern Cameron County in October 2001. The center was named in memory of a two year old Harlingen child whose life was cut short in 1998 by her daytime caregiver. The memories of these two little girls have served to inspire and unite the communities in Cameron County in the fight against child abuse.
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