April 6, 2022
As part of Child Abuse Prevention month, the 11th Annual Children’s Advocacy Center Day was April 5th, and the office of the Attorney General hosted a press conference which was attended by Children’s Advocacy Center leaders and supporters from across South Carolina.
In addition to those joining in person, hundreds of Children’s Advocacy Center staff, multidisciplinary team partners, and supporters also joined via livestream. Attorney General Alan Wilson, and representatives from the South Carolina Network of Children’s Advocacy Centers, Children’s Trust of South Carolina, the Department of Children’s Advocacy, the Department of Social Services, and Silent Tears provided comments highlighting the work that Children’s Advocacy Centers do in the statewide response to child abuse.
During the press conference, The Governors proclamation and a South Carolina General Assembly Concurrent Resolution declaring April 5th, 2022, as Children’s Advocacy Center Day were presented. SCNCAC also awarded the 2022 BeHeard4Kids state leadership award to the South Carolina Department of Social Services to recognize their efforts to #BeHeard4Kids and their contributions on a SCNCAC and DSS database integration to help improve the response to child abuse in South Carolina.
Tom Knapp, Executive Director of the South Carolina Network of Children’s Advocacy Centers, thanked Attorney General Alan Wilson for hosting the press conference and Silent Tears for their sponsorship of the Children’s Advocacy Center Day activities and the work they do to support the statewide response to child abuse in South Carolina.
Tom Knapp noted that during Child Abuse Prevention Month, it is important to remember that a part of prevention of child abuse involves ensuring that the best practice evidence-based response to child abuse that Children’s Advocacy Centers provide is available to all children in need.
“Passage of the South Carolina Child Abuse Response Protocol Act in May of 2021 is an example of collaboration among Children’s Advocacy Center stakeholders and multidisciplinary team partners to formalize the use of Children’s Advocacy Centers and multidisciplinary teams in the statewide response to child abuse”, Tom Knapp said. “This collaboration in 2021 has strengthened the response to child abuse in South Carolina”.
If you missed the press conference, you can view the video on our Children’s Advocacy Center Day web page by clicking on the below link.
