Title
Recognizing and honoring the Philadelphia Children's Alliance (PCA) and the Philadelphia Department of Human Services (DHS) for their collaborative commitment to bring healing and justice to victims of child abuse in Philadelphia and declaring April 2024 to be Child Abuse Prevention Month in the City of Philadelphia.
Body
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 (NRCAC), 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 sexually abused, providing justice and healing for sexually abused children 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 2021, despite the constraints of Covid-19, the Philadelphia Children's Alliance responded to 1,744 reports of child sexual abuse; conducted 1,041 forensic interviews; supplied various support services to 1,241 caregivers; referred 758 children for mental...
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