ENROLLED
2023 Regular Session
HOUSE RESOLUTION NO. 83
BY REPRESENTATIVE LYONS
A RESOLUTION
To recognize Thursday, April 27, 2023, as Child Advocacy Center (CAC) Day in Louisiana.
WHEREAS, Louisiana's CACs have made valuable contributions to the state and
have helped to make the state a better place for children and families; and
WHEREAS, with the establishment of the Jefferson Children's Advocacy Center in
Gretna, Louisiana, in 1991, the year 2023 marks thirty-two years of existence of CACs in
Louisiana; and
WHEREAS, April is recognized as National Child Abuse Prevention Month; and
WHEREAS, one in ten children will experience sexual abuse before the age of
eighteen; Louisiana’s CACs provide services to more than six thousand children each year
in Louisiana's sixty-four parishes for cases involving physical abuse, neglect, sexual abuse,
human trafficking, and children who have witnessed domestic violence and homicide; and
WHEREAS, CACs in Louisiana provide education and promote awareness for the
prevention, identification, and reporting of child abuse; in 2022, these efforts reached over
fifty-four thousand professionals and community members; and
WHEREAS, the mission of Louisiana's CACs is to provide every child victim
referred to a CAC a comfortable, child-friendly environment for forensic interviewing,
victim advocacy, mental health care, and other services to reduce further trauma to the child
and to promote healing; and
WHEREAS, CACs work with multidisciplinary teams of child abuse professionals
to coordinate child abuse investigation and intervention, including district attorneys,
Department of Children and Family Services employees, various law enforcement agencies,
medical and mental health providers, and victim advocates; and
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WHEREAS, these CACs use evidence-based practices to support child well-being,
and that research has demonstrated these programs improve outcomes for children, reduce
trauma for families, and save taxpayer money; and
WHEREAS, the Louisiana Alliance of Children's Advocacy Centers is the state
chapter established for the empowerment, collaboration, and advocacy of Louisiana's CACs
and provides a wide range of critical services to local member centers, including training,
technical assistance, data collection, and advocacy; and
WHEREAS, with ten CACs that are fully accredited members in good standing with
the National Children's Alliance, and more centers on the path to national accreditation,
Louisiana's CACs are part of a network of over nine hundred centers across the nation which
serve more than three hundred fifty thousand children annually.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the House of Representatives of the
Legislature of Louisiana does hereby designate Thursday, April 27, 2023, as Child Advocacy
Center (CAC) Day in Louisiana and does hereby commend the dedication and excellent
work of CACs on behalf of the citizens of Louisiana.
SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
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