The Child and Youth Advocacy Centre (CYAC Durham) will work to prevent
child abuse and violence through awareness and education.
Our centrally located, multi-disciplinary team (MDT) will consist of police, child protection, medical, and mental health agencies working together to provide child-friendly, culturally responsive, trauma-informed wrap-around services for every child who has experienced abuse. (Note: The CYAC is applying for independent charitable status. In the interim, Victim Services of Durham Region has been selected as a lead agency and applicant for funds)
An estimated 148,536 investigations were conducted representing a rate of 62.89 investigations per 1,000 children.
CACs/CYACs bring together a multi-disciplinary team (MDT) to provide a coordinated and comprehensive response to address the needs of children, youth, and their families in cases where abuse is suspected. CACs/CYACs seek to minimize system-induced trauma and support longer-term well-being by providing a child-friendly facility for young victims and their families to seek services, ideally under one roof.
While CYAC's across Canada and beyond are continuing to develop best practices, the positive impact of CYAC's and more coordinated teams has been sustained and well documented. Namely, a summary of research conducted on the Social Value of Boost CYAC over the past 8 years has found that CYAC's have effectively reduced emotional, financial and physical hardship on children and youth who are abused, increased access to services through various means which include but are not limited to:
• Increased number of timely referrals
• Expedited delivery of care to those with most urgent needs
• Longer engagement with clients to identify additional services needs as they develop
Other positive outcomes included an increased capacity of partner agencies through, more comprehensive consultations, both times and costs savings and increased professional development. In the 950 CYAC's that exist worldwide, 380,494 children have been helped by them in the previous year alone and 1,598.005 people have been equipped through training in child abuse prevention by CYAC experts (National Children's Alliance, 2023). These findings affirm the ways in which CYAC's have the capacity to improve the quality of life for children in Durham Region.
Reach out to us to see how we can help.
Whitby