The Children's Advocacy Center was established in 1998 to provide a multi-disciplinary team approach to the investigation, treatment and prosecution of child sexual and serious physical abuse cases. In June 2003, the CAC opened the doors of its permanent site, the historic Bolick home in Conover. Also in 2003, we became at 501(c)3 tax exempt non-profit organization. In October 2004, the CAC became accredited through the National Children's Alliance. Since these early milestones, we have grown tremendously, increasing our ability to serve children and families. Our services now include joint interviews by professionally trained teams, victim advocacy, mental health services for children and families, forensic medical exams, and a non-offending parents' support and education group.

In addition to being an accredited CAC with the National Children's Alliance, we are affiliated with the North Carolina chapter of Children's Advocacy Centers (CACNC) and are a member of Prevent Child Abuse North Carolina (PCANC) as well as the North Carolina Center for Non-Profits. We are co-located with the Children's Protection Council, Catawba County's volunteer organization dedicated to the prevention of child abuse.

Purpose Statement

Catawba County’s CAC is THE face of child advocacy…coordinating a strong and swift response to sexual and severe physical abuse of children in Catawba County.

Mission Statement

The mission of the Children's Advocacy Center of Catawba County is to assure a comprehensive, culturally competent, multi-disciplinary team response to child victims of alleged sexual and severe physical abuse in a comforting and caring manner necessary to reduce further trauma to the child victim and non-offending family members.

Essential to our mission is collaboration among professionals who are involved with the families we serve. The Multidisciplinary Team (MDT) is a group of these professionals, which meets bi-weekly to review the status of criminal child abuse cases, needs of families and the progress toward prosecution of the offenders.  The MDT represents all Law Enforcement agencies in Catawba County, as well as the DA’s office, Social Services, victim’s advocate, mental health, medical, CAC, a sex offender treatment worker and adult probations.

The CAC is governed by a Board of Directors, which is comprised of both professionals we collaborate with and community at-large members. The Board contracts with the Catawba County Department of Social Services to provide operational support such as building maintenance and IT support. The Board’s executive committee has joint input on all personnel decisions.  We believe that this partnership has allowed our Center to focus on the “heart of the work”, with quality and continuity.

The Children’s Advocacy Center of Catawba County (CAC) is located on Highway 16 between Newton and Conover. In June 2003 we opened the doors of our permanent site, the historic Bolick home, which was renovated with the help of  over $45,000 in donations from the community.  The dedication of this beautiful permanent site marked a dream for children that had finally become reality after a decade of work.  Our physical space is as essential to our mission as the work we do. We provide a child and family-friendly atmosphere where victims can feel safe. We have two interview rooms – a children’s interview room and an adolescent interview room; a family resource room; a private exam room for forensic medical exams; a therapy room; meeting space; and a playground outside. In addition to the playground for children, we also have two gardens, a Survivors Garden and a Healing Garden, which provide a peaceful setting for relaxation.

Take a full tour of the CAC by viewing the photo album of our facility.