Welcome…

It takes a community to meet the needs of children impacted by child abuse. Noah’s Hope Child Advocacy Center of Tuscarawas County focuses on providing trauma informed services to child victims and their families. We offer a neutral, child focused environment where children can feel safe and supported when disclosing their suspected abuse.

When families experience an incident of child sexual abuse or physical abuse it can be overwhelming and scary. But children can and do heal. We witness it every day. Noah’s Hope focuses on providing specialized and wrap around services to child victims of abuse and their family. We offer a neutral, child focused environment where children can feel safe and supported when disclosing their suspected abuse.
Noah’s Hope, along with our multi-disciplinary team, work to ensure the needs of the child victim and their family are met and they are on the road to healing and safety.

The team focuses on providing trauma informed services while addressing concerns the child and family may have. The goal of our team approach is to combine the expertise of our multidisciplinary team and bring these services to the child in one centralized location. In turn, we hope to reduce the number of appointments for the family and minimize the trauma to the child. The CAC provides a support network for the child and the nonoffending caregivers from the initial interview through the end of the investigation process.

Years Established

Child Interviews

Our Mission

The mission of Tuscarawas County Child Advocacy Center is to provide a specialized comprehensive, multi-discipline approach to child abuse from disclosure through treatment to reduce further trauma and promote recovery and resiliency for children and families.

When our CAC receives a referral from Children Services or Law Enforcement to interview a child regarding concerns with abuse, we schedule the interview with the family and invite the following disciplines: Children Services, Law Enforcement, Mental Health, Victim Advocacy, Medical and Prosecution. A Forensic Interview is completed with the child by trained staff and recorded. There is an observation room where law enforcement, children services, prosecution and medical can observe the interview. Typically, victim advocates remain in the waiting area with the family to provide support. The interview is distributed to Law Enforcement and Children Services so they can complete their investigation and provide to the Prosecutor’s Office for review if a suspected crime has occurred. While at the CAC the family can be directly linked with mental health services and also referred for a SANE-P exam(Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner, pediatric) if recommended based upon the child’s disclosure. The Center utilizes a Multi-Disciplinary Team approach to ensure the needs of victims and their families are met with consistent, compassionate and trauma informed care.

A CAC is a child focused, facility-based program in which representatives from core disciplines collaborate to investigate child abuse reports, conduct forensic interviews, provide referrals/advocacy and assess cases for prosecution. The primary goal of a CAC is to ensure that children are not further victimized by the intervention systems designed to protect them. Our hope is to reduce the number of times a child has to be interviewed regarding their abuse and lessen the trauma the family is experiencing during this difficult time by bringing them to one location where service providers come to them.
Noah’s Hope Child Advocacy Center of Tuscarawas County opened its doors in 2011 under its legal name Tuscarawas County Child Advocacy Center to provide better services to abused children in our county. Our CAC has been able to bring community providers together in one location for children and their families and provide trauma informed services. To understand what a Child Advocacy Center (CAC) is, you must understand what children face without one. Without a CAC, children had to tell the worst story of their life over and over again to various individuals and in different locations. The CAC offers a neutral, child focused environment where children can feel safe and supported when disclosing their suspected abuse. The CAC model is so important because the core component is teamwork which results in effective, efficient, and child-centered casework.

A forensic interview of a child is a developmentally sensitive and legally sound method of gathering factual information regarding allegations of abuse and exposure to violence. This interview is conducted by a competently trained, neutral professional utilizing research and practice-informed techniques as part of a larger investigative process. The forensic interviewer conducts each interview using a nationally recognized protocol. Your child and the interviewer will be the only people in the room.
All interviews are video and audio recorded.
MDT members will observe the interview from another room.

Referrals for a medical evaluation and treatment services are available and coordinated with the multidisciplinary team response to provide follow-up referrals and/or treatment as necessary. Children benefit from the expertise of child abuse medical providers within a personalized, child-friendly environment.

Victim support and advocacy are available throughout the investigation and prosecution of cases. These services are provided by Noah’s Hope Staff and through our partner agencies. Information regarding the rights of a crime victim and local services is routinely available to all families.

Specialized individual, family, and group mental health services are available as part of the team response through coordination with other treatment providers.

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