ENROLLED
2024 Regular Session
HOUSE RESOLUTION NO. 79
BY REPRESENTATIVE COATES
A RESOLUTION
To designate Thursday, April 11, 2024, as Child Advocacy Center (CAC) Day in Louisiana.
WHEREAS, Louisiana’s Child Advocacy Centers have made valuable contributions
to the state and have helped to make the state a better place for children and families; and
WHEREAS, April is designated National Child Abuse Prevention Month; one in ten
children will experience sexual abuse before age 18; and
WHEREAS, Louisiana’s Child Advocacy Centers provide services to over 7,000
children each year in the 64 parishes of Louisiana for cases involving physical abuse,
neglect, sexual abuse, human trafficking, and children who have witnessed domestic
violence and homicide; and
WHEREAS, Louisiana’s Child Advocacy Centers provide education and awareness
efforts for the prevention, identification, and reporting of child abuse; in 2023, the centers
reached over fifty-eight thousand professionals, children, and community members; and
WHEREAS, the purpose of Louisiana’s Child Advocacy Centers is to provide every
child victim referred to a CAC a comfortable, child-friendly environment for forensic
interviewing, victim advocacy, mental health, and other services in order to reduce further
trauma to the child and promote healing; and
WHEREAS, CACs work with multidisciplinary teams of child abuse professionals
to coordinate child abuse investigation and intervention, including district attorneys, the
Department of Children and Family Services, various law enforcement agencies, medical
and mental health providers, and victim advocates; and
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WHEREAS, CACs use evidence-based practices to support child well-being, and that
research has demonstrated that 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 Child
Advocacy Center and provides a wide range of critical services to local member centers,
including training, technical assistance, data collection, and advocacy; and
WHEREAS, with eleven centers that are fully accredited members in good standing
with the National Children’s Alliance, and three centers on the path to national accreditation,
Louisiana’s Child Advocacy Centers are a part of a network of over 900 centers across the
nation which serve over 350,000 children annually.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the House of Representatives of the
Legislature of Louisiana does hereby designate Thursday, April 11, 2024, as Child Advocacy
Center (CAC) Day in Louisiana and does hereby commend the dedication and excellent
work of the CACs and their staffs on behalf of the citizens of Louisiana.
SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
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