The Georgia Center for Child Advocacy is a private, non-profit agency that was established in 1987. The Center’s mission is to champion the needs of sexually and severely physically abused children through prevention, intervention, therapy, and collaboration. These services are provided at no cost to children who reside in or were abused in DeKalb or Fulton County. The Georgia Center for Child Advocacy’s role throughout the criminal investigation is to focus on the child’s needs, rather than focusing on the crime itself.

The Center provides a safe, friendly place where a child can end their silence by telling a trained therapist about the abuse during a videotaped interview. In addition, children and families are offered long-term psychological treatment to provide healing and hope for the future.  The Center coordinates with agencies involved in the investigation of physical and sexual abuse and offers education for professionals and adults in sexual abuse prevention.

Through a partnership with Darkness to Light, the Center is leading a statewide inititiative to educate adults across Georgia to prevent, recognize and react responsibly to child sexual abuse.

Our vision is a community without child abuse where every child feels safe.  We work towards this by:

• Taking the leadership role in Fulton and DeKalb Counties in facilitating collaboration, communication, and appropriate case coordination and management in both sexual and severe physical abuse cases and
• Developing and building co-located facilities in which social and medical services, law enforcement and prosecutorial resources work together in close proximity, and
• Providing professional and timely forensic services and psychotherapy at no cost to child victims of sexual abuse, severe physical abuse and child witnesses to homicide, and
• Providing training to professionals and expert testimony in court cases, and
• Training adults through a statewide initiative to prevent, recognize and react responsibly to child sexual abuse.