About Us

Advocacy Network for Children has two distinct programs, Court Appointed Special Advocates for Children (CASA) and the Children's Advocacy Centers (CAC).

Our goal is really quite simple - to protect and uphold the rights of children when wrongs have been committed against them, to help abused or neglected children have safe permanent homes where they can thrive, to act as a powerful voice in these children's best interests and to educate the public about the plight of abused children.

Brief History

Advocacy Network for Children, formerly known as Children's Action Network, is a not for profit organization. Established in 1990 as a Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) of Adams County, the agency focused on the recruitment, training and supervision of volunteers who speak in the best interest of abused or neglected children in the court system. As the agency broadened it’s mission to serve abused children in the community, it opened its doors of the Children's Advocacy Center (CAC) in Adams County in 1999 and the Children's Advocacy Center in Pike County in 2002. The agency officially changed its name in 2002 to Children's Action Network in an effort to better reflect all the services of the organization provides.

Two additional satellite Children's Advocacy Centers were opened in 2004. A satellite CAC in Rushville provides services to abused children and their non-offending families in Brown, Cass and Schuyler Counties, and is referred to as Tri-County CAC. A satellite CAC in Carthage was opened to serve Hancock County.

In 2005, Scott County was added to the Pike County CAC office and Morgan County was added in 2006. The most recent expansion was in April of 2007 with the addition of McDonough County to the Hancock County CAC satellite office. There are now interview sites in each of the counties to serve child victims of physical and sexual abuse and their non-offending families. Children's Action Network is now the largest service CAC in Illinois serving about nine counties in west central part of the state between the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers.

The agency changed its name again in March 2008 to Advocacy Network for Children. The focus on advocacy better describes the mission and programs of the agency.

Advocacy Network for Children is accredited through the National Children's Alliance and the CASA of Illinois.