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Building Partnership Toolkit: Whitepaper 

Cultivating collaboration within children and youth 
victim services 

“No single discipline can effectively meet the needs of a victim of 
child abuse.” These words serve as a preamble to the model that 
provides a multidisciplinary response to child victims across the 
United States. A natural extension of this approach invites leaders 
at all levels to work collaboratively with their counterparts to ensure 
a more comprehensive and effective delivery of services. This 
paper encourages a closer partnership between State Chapters of 
Children’s Advocacy Centers (CACs) and State Victim of Crime Act 
(VOCA) Administrators. Beyond encouragement we offer a model 
for building and sustaining such collaborative partnerships between 
state level stakeholders of child and youth victim services. 
Child victimization continues to be pervasive problems in the United 
States that can negatively affect children and youth, their families, 
and communities. The need for effective and accessible services for 
child victims of crime is clear. 

Over 1000 Children’s Advocacy Centers (CACs) across the country 
currently respond to this need with high quality services for child. 
CACs serve to facilitate a child focused, multidisciplinary response 
to allegations of victimization, marshalling the resources of law 


enforcement, child protective services, medical professionals, 
prosecutors, victim advocates, mental health providers and forensic 
interviewers. State Chapters for Children’s Advocacy Centers, 
tasked with providing training and technical assistance, legislative 
advocacy, networking opportunities and assistance with the 
development of new CACs, exist in all 50 states. 

The Victims of Crime Act of 1984 established a fund to support the 
delivery of victim services throughout the country. In 2019 $3.35 
billion was distributed to states to be administered by a VOCA 
Administrator. These administrators work to ensure that programs 
and organizations throughout their state receive the funding 
needed to meet the needs of victims of crime. 

CAC Chapters and State VOCA Administrators come in all shapes 
and sizes. Whether a Chapter is a nonprofit or a government-based 
organization, no two are alike. The same holds true for VOCA 
Administrators with each state identifying its own state 
administering agency to distribute funds and monitor grants and 
programing. Every state also has its own system for providing 
services to children and youth victims, involving child welfare and 
criminal justice agencies. 

With no widely prescribed or accepted model for what a systems 
level partnership between these entities should look like, we find 
levels of collaboration varying greatly from state to state. These 
partnerships range from intentional and comprehensive to almost 
nonexistent. In some states we see cases of failed partnerships, 
resulting in strained and broken relationships. Encouragingly there 
are multiple examples demonstrating that a close and meaningful 


collaboration between these systems level stakeholders results in 
improved access and quality of victim services for children and 
youth. 

Making a Case for Partnership 

Several arguments for a closer relationship between VOCA 
Administrators and CAC Chapters are immediately apparent: 

More Agile Systems 

With recent fluctuations in funding, VOCA Administrators and CAC 
Chapters have had to adapt, on a relatively quick basis, to changes 
within the system that supports services for victims of crime. 
Whether it’s figuring out how to connect more resources to services 
or how to decrease funding without significantly impacting service 
delivery, collaborative partnerships create more nimble systems 
able to quickly adapt to change. 

Connecting Resources to Need 

There is perhaps nothing more frustrating than an RFP that no one 
applies for. The space between funding and direct services is often 
substantial, making it challenging to know how to effectively steer 
resources. As membership organizations, CAC Chapters rely on 
strong relationships with the CACs in their states. They have their 
finger on the pulse of the work being done on the ground. Access 
to such perspective offers the ability to intentionally craft funding 
initiatives, ensuring that resources find their way to need. 


System Efficiency 

Close relationships, built on shared understanding and mutual 
respect, make things work easier. Whether on a multidisciplinary 
team or a state level collaborative, efficiency within complex 
systems demands partnership. Finding the answer to your question 
with one phone call instead of five is no small thing. Neither is 
having Chapter staff provide regular technical assistance on VOCA 
grant reporting during CAC Chapter membership meetings. With 
good partnership we find endless opportunities to do the work in a 
more efficient manner. 

Innovation and Creativity 

Interdisciplinary teaming to solve complex problems is by no means 
a new concept. Bringing together a diversity of perspective and 
experience can yield innovative and creative solutions. 
Collaborative partnerships between CAC Chapters, VOCA 
Administrators and other stakeholders, present an opportunity to 
inject new ideas and approaches into the system, resulting in 
improved services for children and youth victims of crime. 

 

How to Begin 

Cultivating a strong and lasting collaborative partnership is no small 
task, but it’s not exactly rocket science. While it can be as simple 
as expressing a hope for a closer relationship, it really should be an 
intentional process with identified goals and a shared vision. 
Attention to three areas of focus will help guide CAC Chapters and 
VOCA Administrators on a path toward enhanced collaboration and 
partnership, ultimately improving services for crime victims. 


 

Assessing Need 

Any good process of building partnership should begin with an 
assessment of need. This doesn’t have to be a painstaking 
endeavor, but should ask a few key questions: 

• What does partnership and collaboration currently look like 
between the State CAC Chapter and the VOCA Administering 
Agency? 
• Are we in regular communication with each other? 
• Do we participate in any collaborative projects or facilitate 
shared programs? 
• How likely are we to reach out to each other for assistance or 
with questions? 
• How might a collaborative partnership translate to improved 
services for children and youth victims of crime? 
• What challenges or obstacles that would present potential 
barriers to a collaborative partnership? 


Answers to these questions will offer a sense of whether a more 
intentional partnership building processes is necessary and how it 
might need to be structured to achieve the desired result. 
Considering these questions can also offer CAC Chapters and VOCA 
Administrators an opportunity to reflect on what might be possible 
if their answers were different. 

Intentional Relationship Building 

Collaborative partnerships depend on trust and safety, which in turn 
depend on strong relationships. An early and necessary step in any 


partnership building process is relationship building. Creating 
opportunities for partners to come together and get to know one 
another is an easy yet frequently overlooked part of the process. 
Intentional relationship building presents opportunities for 
individuals to get to know one another as people, beyond simply 
roles and titles. Making time and space for building relationships 
establishes the foundation on which partnership can then be built. 

 

Create A Shared Understanding 

If asked to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, you could 
likely do so without thinking about it. Ask a team of ten people to 
make a sandwich together and the process will look a lot different. 
That’s because we all approach the world with our own unique 
understanding, shaped by our individual ideas, perspectives, and 
experiences. 

An early and critical step in teaming is to craft a shared 
understanding of the work we all do and why we do it. 
Collaboration must begin with sharing about our roles, 
responsibilities, challenges, opportunities, hopes, and ideas. This 
allows us to create a new, shared perception of our partners and 
how a collaborative partnership might translate into meaningful 
effect. This basic step helps to reveal and clarify any assumptions 
or confusion that exists, even within teams that already have 
strong relationships. 

Facilitating and Sustaining Collaboration 

While these three areas of focus offer a glimpse into what a 
collaborative partnership may offer and how to begin the process, it 


may require a deeper investment of time and intention. Once it is 
clear that both the CAC Chapter and VOCA Administrator are 
interested in stronger collaboration consider engaging a facilitator 
to guide the process. Facilitators help by creating structures that 
cultivate and sustain collaborative partnerships. All four Regional 
Children’s Advocacy Centers are well suited to help facilitate such 
processes, as are countless other training and technical assistance 
providers. 

Sustaining collaboration can be relatively easy once a foundation 
for partnership is established. In many cases just working 
collaboratively is all that is needed to keep things running 
smoothly. The addition of ongoing points of connection, attention 
to the areas of focus listed above and regular strategic vision 
setting is often more than enough to ensure a stable long-term 
partnership. That said, with turnover in leadership and staff there 
may be a need to re-engage in a more committed process from 
time to time. 

Looking Forward 

CAC Chapters and VOCA Administrators, along with other important 
stakeholders, have an opportunity to enhance access and quality of 
victim services for children and youth in their states. This can often 
be achieved with little to no investment of resource beyond the 
time it takes to sit down together and maybe the cost of a few 
lunches. Certainly, there will be obstacles to navigate and perhaps 
some challenging conversations to be had, but when done in the 
interest of better serving our most vulnerable, it is well worth it. 


As more and more VOCA Administrators and CAC Chapters come 
together to form collaborative partnerships we look forward to 
continued improvements in the field’s ability to meet the full needs 
of all children and youth victims of crime. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A companion resource titled “Building Partnership Toolkit” offers step by step 
support for those engaged in building collaboration between CAC Chapters and 
VOCA Administrators. This resource can be found at the National Resource 
Center for Reaching Victims website. 

 

 

This toolkit was produced by the Vera Institute of Justice and the National 
Children’s Advocacy Center under award #2016-XV- GX-K015, awarded by the 
Office for Victims of Crime, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of 
Justice. The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed 
in this toolkit are those of the contributors and do not necessarily represent the 
official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice.