The Child Advocacy Center, Inc.

10/12/2026

Excited to be expanding our space to better serve children in our 14 county area! 💚💙

‘More than a building project’: The Child Advocacy Center breaks ground on its new campus on Elfindale Street.

Read it: https://sgfcitizen.org/government/social-issues/cac-groundbreaking-springfield-campus/

10/12/2026

The Child Advocacy Center broke ground on their new Springfield campus on Monday, October 12, 2026. The parking lot was full of CAC staff, Board Members, donors, and community leaders who came together to celebrate the new home of the CAC!

Partnering with DeWitt & Associates, Inc. and Kinetic Design + Development, the CAC looks forward to opening their expanded new center in summer 2027 where they will continue to serve children and families across our 14-county area.

10/10/2026

💚💙💚💙

10/09/2026

Our Prevention Team was in Marshfield this week, connecting with teens and continuing important conversations about safety, healthy relationships, and knowing where to turn for help. 💙

We are grateful for the opportunity to partner with schools throughout our community to provide prevention education and empower young people with knowledge and tools that can help keep them safe.

10/08/2026

“Our Walnut Street facility can no longer meet the growing needs of the children and multidisciplinary teams who rely on us, making this expansion both urgent and essential.

“After serving more than 1,700 children in 2025, we know that even a 10-day wait can feel like an eternity to a child carrying the burden of abuse. This new campus will give us the accessible, private space we need to deliver timely, coordinated care while always putting children first.” said Katiina Dull, CAC Executive Director of the Child Advocacy Center.

With more forensic interview space, more mental health resources and room for growth, a new Child Advocacy Center campus is moving forward in Springfield. See link below ⬇️

📸 Provided by Child Advocacy Center

10/02/2026

Our Prevention Team continued their work in schools this week, connecting with teens at Bradleyville and Chadwick! 💙

Through these conversations, teens learned more about safety, healthy relationships, and knowing where to turn for help when something doesn’t feel right.

We are grateful for the opportunity to partner with schools throughout our community to provide prevention education and empower young people with knowledge that can help keep them safe.

10/02/2026

The 2026 Community Focus Report from Ozarks Public Health Institute is now available.

“The Community Partnership Ozarks’s CAN Collaborative, which is a Child Abuse and Neglect Collaborative that meets monthly, is a multi-agency, multi-organizational meeting... [Child Abuse and Neglect] has been a red flag ever since the inception of the [Community Focus] Report: that we have higher rates of child abuse and neglect referrals in Greene County than compared to our peer counties in the state of Missouri. And I learned this interesting thing that happens with data, where when you’re really good at reporting data you get a lot of numbers and those numbers are really large.

And something that is a strength of our specific region is that we work together incredibly well to keep very close track of every kid that has a referral of child abuse and neglect. Not only when that referral is first made but once that child enters into the system, once their family becomes part of the system, there is an entire network of folks who work tirelessly to ensure that they are well represented, that their cases reach conclusion, that reunification is the goal, and that families are set up to succeed past their experience with the child welfare system.

I walked away from those particular meetings feeling like our kids are so well cared for here. The people in that room may not be able to control what happens before a hotline call is made, before a referral is made, but once that referral is made, there is a network of people who care deeply about taking care of kids in Greene County. We’re enormously lucky to have them.” - Traci Nash, Facilitator and Program Coordinator, Community Focus in Ozarks Public Health Institute at Missouri State University

10/02/2026

Missouri State Order of Omega members at Missouri State University recently took time out of their busy college schedules to create fleece blankets for the kiddos at the CAC. 💙💚

We are so grateful for these students and their support of children in the Ozarks! These cozy comfort blankets make an impact as these kiddos begin their healing journey!

10/02/2026

Child abuse investigations don’t follow a 9-to-5 schedule, and neither does the need for compassionate care. Day or night, on weekdays and weekends, the dedicated individuals at the Child Advocacy Center work long hours to ensure children receive the critical forensic and medical services they need.

As the demand for these services continues to grow, we are incredibly proud of our team and grateful for their unwavering commitment to the children in our community. 💙