With a budget of about $1.7 million, nonprofit serves 500 to 600 children and families each year
By Stefan Yablonski
The Child Advocacy Center of Oswego County is a safe, child-friendly site where members of the multi-disciplinary team of Oswego County gather to assist child abuse victims and their families. It is a nonprofit 501(C)3. It has offices in Fulton and Pulaksi.
Historically, children who were the victims of abuse allegations were shuffled from agency to agency where they would have to tell their story of abuse and relive painful events over and over again, explained Tory DeCaire, executive director. He joined the CAC after a 22-year career with the Oswego Police Department, retiring as chief.
The CAC brings agencies and services together in one child-friendly setting that is non threatening and physically and psychologically safe for children of all ages. The intent is to minimize unnecessary interviews of children and the discomfort and embarrassment that talk about abuse can cause, he said.
“We serve up to age 18, give or take. It depends on a lot of factors, but 18 is usually the cutoff. If we have started services with somebody before they were 18 we would continue through until the services are complete. It also depends on when the crime was committed, if there was a crime, and things like that. But generally speaking it is up to age 18,” he said.
Hundreds of cases
Usually, the CAC serves around 500 to 600 children and families each year.
“We haven’t fluctuated too far from that number depending on the type of services. Generally speaking that’s about the number we serve annually,” he said.
CAC has a lot of services that it offers.
“The core of what we do is the multi-disciplinary team … investigation allegations of sexual, physical abuse. We have other services that we offer like Safe Harbor which deals with children who have been or are at risk of being commercially sexually exploited and we deal with them on a fairly routine basis per month. We also offer services to families, wrap around services, if for example getting the child out of the house because the offender is living with them. We have a case manager who will help them. And a variety of other services that we offer also, such as community outreach and efforts to aid in the prevention of child abuse throughout Oswego County,” he said.
The CAC’s budget is around $1.7 million to $1.8 million. It really is blended funding streams. The majority comes from federal money filtered through the state. Another part comes from a combination of NYS Office of Children and Family Services and some local grants and contracts. The rest is through insurance billing and some fundraising, he explained.
“Budgets get tighter, so you have to make do with less. It gets really competitive; you switch things around to meet the needs. A lot of nonprofits are doing the same thing. We are doing well … you always hope for more, he said.
The CAC tackles the problem at both ends. It provides services after something has happened to help the children survive and go on to thrive. But it also tries to tackle it from a prevention standpoint.
“Hopefully someday we can get the reduction we really want and I would be completely happy if some day we had to close up the CAC because it was no longer needed and children were no longer being abused. I would be perfectly fine with that,” DeCaire said. “Until that day comes, we will continue to be here and continue to provide the services that are needed.”
