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Recognizing and honoring the Philadelphia Children's Alliance and the Philadelphia Department of Human Services for their collaborative commitment to bring healing and justice to victims of child abuse in Philadelphia and declaring April 2023 to be Child Abuse Prevention Month in the City of Philadelphia.
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WHEREAS, For the past 34 years, the Philadelphia Children's Alliance and the Philadelphia Department of Human Services have advocated for a team-based approach, built cooperative relationships, introduced efficiencies into the system to provide rapid response, and effectively changed how abused children are served and cared for in Philadelphia; and
WHEREAS, The Philadelphia Children's Alliance is a national best standards model for peer agencies nationwide and leads the National Regional Children's Advocacy Center, which provides training and technical assistance for state chapters, children's advocacy centers, and multidisciplinary teams in nine states in the Northeastern United States; and
WHEREAS, Since 2013, the Philadelphia Children's Alliance, the Philadelphia Department of Human Services, Philadelphia Police Special Victims Unit, the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and St. Christopher's Hospital for Children have operated a co-located facility within the Seventh Councilmanic District to provide a victim-centered response to all children in Philadelphia who have been impacted by sexual abuse, exploitation, and violence and their families, ending the cycle of abuse, protecting children who have experienced sex trafficking, and improving the quality of abuse investigations; and
WHEREAS, During Fiscal Year 2022, despite the constraints of Covid-19, the Philadelphia Children's Alliance responded to 1,724 reports of child sexual abuse; conducted 1,061 forensic interviews; supplied support services to 1,261 caregivers; referred 739 children for mental health therapy to its twenty-three mental health p...
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