Safe Harbor East receives accreditation

Ventura County Safe Harbor East in Simi Valley, one of two multidisciplinary child advocacy centers in Ventura County, has been recently accredited with the National Children's Alliance.

NCA is a nationwide notforprofit membership organization based in Washington, D.C., whose mission is to promote and support communities in providing coordinated investigation and comprehensive response to victims of severe child abuse.

NCA has more than 378 accredited members throughout the country and 219 associate members.

Accredited members must demonstrate that they are a fully functioning child advocacy center and that they provide comprehensive, culturally competent, multidisci-plinary team response in a dedicated childfriendly setting and comply with 10 standards of practice.

Safe Harbor East was established based on the NCA Standards of Operation and applied for NCA accreditation earlier this year. NCA site reviewers visited the center to verify program components and to evaluate the center's compliance to NCA standards.

The primary goal of all child advocacy centers, including Safe Harbor East, is to ensure that children are not further victimized by the intervention systems designed to protect them.