What We Do

Safe Shores - The D.C. Children's Advocacy center is an independent nonprofit organization that leads a private-public partnership established to provide a coordinated and child-friendly approach to the investigation and prosecution of civil and criminal child abuse cases in the District of Columbia. Safe Shores currently has nine full-time staff members on site, and is fully co-located with staff representatives of its multidisciplinary team (MDT) partner agencies. Safe Shores staff works on a daily basis with a MDT that consists of representatives from local and federal law enforcement, legal, social service, and mental health agencies including the Metropolitan Police Department, the Office of the Attorney General, the United States Attorney’s Office, the Child & Family Services Agency, and Children’s National Medical Center.

The Safe Shrores facility is designed to provide a warm and welcoming place where children and adolescents can feel safe and supported while waiting for forensic interviews, therapy, court appearances, or placement resolutions. Safe Shores is also designed to serve as a coordinating body for the MDT agencies listed above. The Center's staff facilitates cooperation and coordination among the MDT by providing statistical case tracking, bi-weekly team case reviews to coordinate the civil and criminal investigations, joint forensic interviews, trauma assessments, therapy, and pre-trial support for child victims. The staff also ensures that children receive supervision, meals, clean clothes, crisis intervention and other emergency victim services during the joint investigative process.

©2006 Safe Shores All Rights Reserved.