Child Advocate Resources

Curriculum

Child Protective Services: A Guide for Caseworkers 2003 Office on Child Abuse and Neglect guide describes purposes, key decisions, and issues of each stage of the Child Protective Services (CPS) process, as well as strategies for casework supervision, training, and support.
A Coordinated Response to Child Abuse and Neglect: The Foundation for Practice Office on Child Abuse and Neglect manual for Child Protective Service workers and related professionals includes an overview of child maltreatment, along with a discussion on prevention and on the child protection process.

Best Practices for Interviewing Children with Disabilities American Bar Association provides practice and policy briefs, books, articles, podcasts, and webinars to increase knowledge of the needs of children with disabilities who experience abuse and neglect, along with advocacy strategies to protect them.
Demystifying Disability in Child Abuse Interviewing Oregon Children's Justice Act Task Force: Project Ability developed this resource for professionals in child welfare, law enforcement, emergency response, medicine, and mental health. It presents a simple but systematic way of thinking to help professionals engage successfully with children with disabilities.
Victims with Disabilities: The Forensic Interview Disability and Abuse Project film and training document. The 55-minute film is divided into 8 steps for achieving a successful forensic interview of crime victims with intellectual and/or communication disabilities, demonstrated by actual law enforcement staff and forensic interviewers. The 72-page training document provides guidelines for law enforcement, prosecutors, victim advocates, and forensic interviewers who work with crime victims with disabilities.

Trauma-Informed Child Welfare Practice Toolkit Chadwick Trauma-Informed Systems provides 5 tools for individuals and organizations to create a more trauma-informed child welfare system.
Trauma-Informed Care Training Two-hour training by the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services to assist families, caregivers, and other social service providers in understanding trauma-informed care, child traumatic stress, and compassion fatigue.

Texas Parent to Parent Comprehensive website that provides parent-to-parent support, resource material, and education to parents and to professionals working with children with disabilities.
Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline is staffed by professional counselors who are available 24 hours a day, every day of the year. All calls are anonymous and toll-free. Call 1-800-4-A-CHILD (1-800-422-4453) then push 1 to talk to a Hotline Counselor. Communication in 170 languages is available through technology that allows three-way conversations between the Hotline counselor, the caller, and a professional translator.