Our History

Our doors opened in 1992 and since then the Children’s Advocacy Center of Collin County has served over 40,000 children.

The concept for a Children’s Advocacy Center (CAC) originated when Alabama Congressman Robert E. "Bud" Cramer, Jr. was serving as a District Attorney. In 1985, Congressman Cramer reached the conclusion that many systems in place to support children victimized by abuse were actually re-victimizing them. Children suffering abuse were shuffled from police stations to social service offices, spending hours and days in adult facilities with people trained to deal with adults, not children.

Congressman Cramer's idea was to create a child friendly environment where children could safely tell their story and receive the support they need after abuse. His vision has led to the creation of more than 700 CAC’s throughout the nation, with 64 in Texas alone.

Today children are able to visit a CAC full of childhood comforts designed specifically for them. Instead of describing their abuse to multiple adults, they speak with a trained forensic interviewer in a comfortable environment and the interview is recorded to minimize the number of times they must retell the details of their trauma.