Mountain Child Advocacy Center

Buncombe County, N.C. – The month of April is Child Abuse Awareness and Prevention month. The Mountain Child Advocacy Center (Mountain CAC) is coordinating events in April to raise awareness of child abuse and neglect and what our community can do to take a stand for the most vulnerable members of our society: our children. Often times, child abuse is hidden due to the need to protect a child’s privacy so the month of April as Child Abuse Awareness and Prevention month helps to bring this issue into the spotlight. The Mountain Child Advocacy Center (Mountain CAC), is an accredited, non-profit child advocacy center that provides advocacy, education, and best-practice trauma therapy for abused children.

Child Abuse and Neglect in Buncombe County

These costs include the direct, short-term and long term costs of medical attention, mental health services, child welfare systems, adult services and law enforcement. Research from the Harvard Center on the Developing Child show that people who suffer from toxic stress and trauma as a child can have long term poor health outcomes such as diabetes, anxiety, and heart disease as well as a myriad of mental health issues- such as depression and

All children deserve to grow up in nurturing environments that foster their healthy development. Investments in programs that help parents learn better ways to communicate and interact with their children make parents better able to provide the loving, stable homes children need. The more positive factors that we stack up in our community, the more likely it is that parents will be equipped for the hard work of parenting.

Mountain CAC is a leader in the effort to prevent child abuse. Leslie Hansen, MCAC Board of Directors’ Chair wants people to know, “We can do better. We must do better for our children. Our message to the community is one of hope, help and healing -- focusing on the positive outcomes that we can achieve when working together to prevent child abuse.”

Mountain CAC also provides therapy at no cost to over 100 children every year. Every MCAC Therapist is fully qualified to provide Trauma Focused-Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, which is recognized as the best practice, evidence-based therapy that enables a child victim to heal from their abuse. MCAC also provides prevention education through personal safety classes to over 9,000 school children every year, Recognize & Report classes for adults, and positive parenting classes.

Events to Raise Awareness of Child Abuse and