The Children’s Advocacy Center of Androscoggin, Franklin, and Oxford Counties (CAC-AFO) promotes the healing of victims of child sexual abuse by providing a strong community response to investigation, treatment and prevention of abuse.

The CAC-AFO is a place where children who have been abused can be interviewed by a specially trained forensic interviewer in a child-friendly environment. Those who need information from the child (law enforcement, DHHS, prosecutors, etc.) can witness the interview via closed circuit television in another room. They can also feed questions to the interviewer to get additional information they need to complete an investigation.

CAC-AFO is a community initiative that provides a safe, child-friendly environment for child abuse investigations and treatment, supports a multi-disciplinary process to work with child abuse victims, and works with the community to develop and enhance services to child abuse victims and prevention programs.  CAC-AFO multi-disciplinary team is made up of members from law enforcement, child protection, mental health, sexual assault prevention and response, medical and prosecution agencies.

The primary goal of Children’s Advocacy Centers (CACs) is to ensure that children disclosing abuse are not further victimized by the intervention systems designed to protect them. CACs are child-focused, facility-based programs with representatives from many disciplines working together to effectively investigate, prosecute, and treat child abuse. CAC locations are not only child-focused, but designed to create a sense of safety and security for child victims. For more information about CACs, visit the National Children’s Alliance.