Fall Philanthropy Report: Children’s Assessment Center Touts ‘Healing’ for Child Abuse Victims
Oct. 8, 2024
What is your mission? The Children’s Assessment Center (The CAC) provides healing services to over 6,300 child sexual abuse victims and their families each year. We offer forensic interviewing, family advocacy, mental health services, medical care, and court services at no cost. We facilitate community outreach and prevention training to raise awareness about child abuse in our community and how to keep children safe. Last year, we provided prevention training to over 35,000 community members, including 23,500 children in schools.
Why did you launch the organization? The CAC is the only child advocacy center in Harris County and one of the largest nationwide. Sadly, before the implementation of advocacy centers, there was not a streamlined process for children. Victims of sexual abuse were often interviewed multiple times by various law enforcement, medical professionals, and mental health clinicians. Here at The CAC, we know that having to recount abuse several times can be retraumatizing, and we sought to find a solution to make a trauma-informed process.
The goal of The CAC is to provide all the services, partners, and resources families need in one place. We collaborate with hundreds of professionals from 60 Partner Agencies (e.g., law enforcement, medical and mental health professionals, nonprofits, and governmental investigative entities) to coordinate investigations, provide services, and protect children. Our hope is that our process will give children the tools necessary to empower them on their healing journey.
How have you impacted the community? Our work is guided by the belief that all children in our community deserve to grow up safe, happy, and healthy. We work to empower children’s healing journeys, restore hope in families, and provide support to avoid long-term trauma. The CAC exists to help our community become a better, safer place for each child of Harris County.
Tell us about your big event. We will host our annual Spirit of Spring Gala to celebrate The Children’s Assessment Center Foundation’s 30th anniversary. We are thrilled to invite community members who have helped us make a lasting impact on child sexual abuse survivors, their families, and our community. We look forward to commemorating the 30th year on April 11, 2025, at The Houstonian Hotel.
How can I help? As adults, it is our responsibility to keep children safe. Your generosity can help empower families on their healing journey and protect vulnerable children. Please consider how you can be part of the solution to end child sexual abuse. Go to our website, cachouston.org, to learn how to donate, volunteer, and protect children in our community.
We exist to protect children, heal families, and prevent child sexual abuse and child sex trafficking in our community.
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Houston Arboretum
WE ALL LOVE a Rodeo, but sometimes we need options for events that have a different energy, speed — and crowd size. Check out some artsy, unique happenings around Houston in March!
Bayou City Art Festival
Work by Jasmine Bousie
The alfresco art festival returns to the streets of Downtown March 29-30. Walk the streets, sidewalk, and grounds of Sam Houston Park along Allen Parkway and enjoy hundreds of artist booths, a craft beer garden, live music, craft stations and more! This year's spring fest features four Houston-area college art students in a special exhibit. Maryam Abdullahi of Houston Community College, Jasmine Bousie of the University of Houston Downtown, Tetzal Cornejo of Rice University, and Ashley Guevara of the University of Houston will debut their artwork while representing their school to showcase and sell their art at Houston's signature art festival.
'Monarch Story' at the Houston Arboretum
The migratory path of the Monarch butterfly goes through Texas, and the Houston Arboretum & Nature Center has erected an interactive art installation celebrating the beautiful creature and its habitat! A collection of larger-than-life sculptures by artist Michelle Matthews is located near the Butterfly Bungalow just north of the nature playscape at the Arboretum, which in total is home to more than 600 native plant species. Check it out over Spring Break!
'Make Believe: Poems for Hoping Again'
A Houston-based yoga influencer and "handstanding poet" known as the Daily Victorian, Victoria Hutchins is now a published author. The TikTok star (with more than 1.1M followers) celebrates the release of her book, Make Believe: Poems for Hoping Again, at Blue Willow Bookshop on March 19. Blue Willow has sold more than 1,000 pre-orders of her book (and counting!), one of its largest, most successful pre-orders ever. Make Believe tells the story of Victoria abandoning her job as a burnt-out corporate lawyer deep in the midst of a spiritual crisis. She rediscovers herself as a creative person and finds her happiness (and provides the same tools for others).
Dinner and a Show at Brennan's
Mardi Gras doesn't have to be over! On March 16, savor Creole fare at Brennan's and enjoy an evening of top-40 rock from the 1960s and '70s courtesy of P.F. & the Flyers. A three-course dinner — salad, creole-stuffed chicken or beef tenderloin, and the famous bananas Foster — is served at first-come-first-served communal tables of 10-12 guests. Doors open at 5:30pm and entertainment begins at 6:30. Rock on!
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Dr. Edward Lee and Nuveau
DR. EDWARD LEE believes in bringing the most advance treatment options to his patients at Nuveau. At the River Oaks practice, he performs the latest nonsurgical rejuvenation procedures, such as BOTOX and fillers, various laser treatments, and other nonsurgical treatmetns such as CoolSculpting and EmSculpt. He also does facelifts, upper and lower blepharoplasty, brow lift, and rhinoplasty for facial rejuvenation. Plus, he can achieve natural results with breast augmentation and breast lift surgery, as well as body contouring, such as liposuction, abdominoplasty, Brazilian butt lift and mommy makeovers.
His latest treatment to unveil at Nuveau is UltraClear. It is the latest in anti-aging treatment taking the aesthetic industry by storm. UltraClear is the world’s first cold ablative fiber laser utilizing proprietary 3DIntelliPulse technology to optimize ablative and coagulative energy while minimizing collateral thermal impact.
This breakthrough technology enables providers to address a wide variety of aesthetic and dermatologic conditions. It is the all-in-one solution for lunchtime “prejuvenation” with 3DMIRACL, to skin quality improvement and deep collagen remodeling, and to the latest anti-aging advancement, Laser-Coring.
UltraClear Laser-Coring delivers quick laser pulses to remove micro-channels of skin. Featuring novel precise energy control, many patients experience shorter healing time and noticeable improvement after a single treatment. Laser-Coring is easily incorporated with UltraClear Resurfacing Treatments to address multiple signs of aging and enhance your rejuvenation outcomes. Moreover, Dr. Lee believes in multi-modal therapy to deliver the best possible results so that each and every patient can look and feel her best. As such, he routinely combines surgical and nonsurgical treatments, such as a combination of facelift, eyelid surgery and UltraClear laser treatment, which can be performed together to minimize recovery and downtime.
Meet with Dr. Lee and the team at Nuveau today!
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