The spirit of giving is all around us this year! This Tuesday, November 30th, the Children’s Advocacy Center of Hidalgo and Starr Counties (CACHS) invites you to celebrate Giving Tuesday by giving, sharing, and challenging others to give back to their local communities! CACHSC encourages community members of the Rio Grande Valley to give back by donating, volunteering, or spreading awareness about child abuse.
How the CACHSC Has Impacted Kids Throughout the RGV
Over the past 20 years, we have provided 101,699 services to victims of child abuse. We strongly believe in helping children throughout the Rio Grande Valley heal from their experiences and aiding them in the realization that there exists a bright future ahead of them.
We offer services meant to give hope back to these children and guide them with resources to begin and continue healing. The CACHSC provides safe spaces for children, as well as a number of existing services, including:
Forensic Interview
The Forensic Interview is the first step in gathering information and investigating suspected child abuse. To conduct a forensic interview, members of our CACHSC forensic team undergo specialized training to meet the expectations of children and families!
The child may expect the following during a forensic interview:
- A comfortable and safe environment.
- Kindness, compassion, and empathy.
- All the necessary comforts that the child may need throughout the interview.
Other members of the investigation team, law enforcement, and CPS may have the ability to view the interview in a different room as a collaborative effort to prevent the child from reliving their traumatic experience multiple times.
The SANE Exam
If a child were a victim of sexual abuse, a pediatric sexual assault nurse examiner (SANE) would guide them through a safe, non-invasive, physical, emotional, and behavioral exam. The purpose of a SANE exam is to help evaluate and treat any symptoms and keep a thorough record of evidence of sexual child abuse.
Hope and Healing
At the Children’s Advocacy Center of Hidalgo and Starr Counties, we give healing therapy services that help children regain trust, self-esteem, resilience, hope, and healing. Our comprehensive, trauma-focused assessments help us evaluate the right plan to guide each child on their healing journeys.
Our therapists are trained in:
- Collaborative Problem Solving (CPS)
- Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT)
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy Informed Treatment
- Trauma Focused-Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT)
- Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
Rebuilding Families
We understand that child abuse will also take a toll on non-offending family members, which is why our Family Advocacy Program is essential in coping with the emotional scars endured from a sexual child abuse case.
Our Family Advocates help family members with:
- Accompanying and offering support in court
- Directing them to referrals for community resources
- Filling out referrals for evidence-based mental health services
- Grant information regarding the Victim Compensation Program
- Staying in touch with the victim’s caregivers throughout the investigation
“I just want to thank the community for their continued support for the past 20 years. We could not have done it without them and we hope that we could get their continued support for the next 20 years. It’s up to the entire community to make sure we do right by them, by the children, and we provide the services that they need so they can become fully functioning adults and contribute to the community in a positive way.”
-Jesus Sanchez
Executive Director of CACHSC
Making A Difference in 2020
The Children’s Advocacy Center of Hidalgo and Starr Counties strives to make a difference within our community in the Rio Grande Valley. Here, in our very community, children are abused every single day. As of last year, we have helped children all around the RGV by providing the following services:
- Debriefing – 1,941
- Medical Exams – 181
- Crisis Interventions – 152
- Forensic Interviews – 1,765
- Counseling Sessions – 2,404
- Family Advocacy Cases – 1,569
Choose Generosity this Giving Tuesday
Giving Tuesday is a global generosity movement that started in 2012 to cement a day out of the year for the sole act of giving and encourage people to continue giving as the year progresses. Over the last 9 years, this movement has garnered billions towards important causes worldwide through charitable donations.
If you would like to participate in Giving Tuesday, be sure to support your local organizations! Simply fill out CACHSC’s donation form. Learn more about Giving Tuesday and follow their Facebook and Twitter. The more who join, the more this beautiful movement blooms.
“Giving matters more now than ever.”
-Ashley Curran
Chief Financial Officer of CACHSC
Keep on Giving this Giving Tuesday!
Cultivating a positive giving culture within our community enables us to succeed in the important work that we do. This year, we continue to encourage our community in the Rio Grande Valley and beyond to contribute to a cause that helps so many children.
It takes a whole community of people to create a positive change in the world. Let us help children in the Rio Grande Valley. Contribute to our cause at the Children’s Advocacy Center of Hidalgo and Starr Counties by donating, hosting your own Giving Tuesday events, volunteering, and more!