Our Projects

Prevent Child Abuse Arizona (PCA Arizona) is a private, non-profit organization whose mission is to prevent the abuse and neglect of Arizona's children. As one of 46 state chapters of Prevent Child Abuse America, we provide training, advocacy and program development to public and private agencies, policy makers and funders. Our current projects include:

Best for Babies

In partnership with the Yavapai County Juvenile Court and more than ten local agencies, the Best for Babies project advocates for the best care our community can provide for infants and toddlers in the foster care system as a result of abuse and neglect. The Best for Babies Think Tank is working to assure that our infants and toddlers in foster care in Yavapai County are safe, secure, healthy and developmentally on track. Unfortunately, babies are the fastest growing group of children entering foster care as a result of abuse and/or neglect.     READ MORE

Court Teams for Infants and Toddlers

The Court Teams for Infants and Toddlers is a training and technical assistance project with currently eight of fifteen Arizona county juvenile courts. It is funded by the Arizona Department of Economic Security and the Administrative Office of the Courts. In participating counties, the courts assure that infants and toddlers in foster care are receiving timely, essential health and developmental services. Over one-third of children in foster care in Arizona are under the age of four.

Domestic Violence Prevention Project

Domestic Violence Prevention Project is a multi-year project funded by the Governor's Office for Women. The project is implementing best practices to reduce the impact of domestic violence on families and the community.

The goal of the first year (2005) was to develop a plan to reduce the impact of domestic violence in Prescott Valley. Guided by a group of community stakeholders representing agencies involved in the issues in that community, a plan was developed which addresses the following goals:

Goal One: To increase public awareness of the impact of violence on young children.

Goal Two: To provide systematic support to victims of domestic violence.

Goal Three: To hold perpetrators more accountable through the legal system.

Healthy Families Arizona

Healthy Families Arizona is 98 percent effective in preventing child abuse and neglect with high risk new parents, and is currently serving 17 percent of eligible new parents in Arizona. HFAz is a community-based, family-centered, voluntary home visitation program serving at risk prenatal families and families with newborns through age five. The infant must be under three months of age at enrollment into the program as services are focused primarily on prevention through education and support in the homes of new parents.

Program services are designed to strengthen families during the first five years of a child’s life when vital early brain development occurs. In 2008, HFAz family support specialists engaged 5,527 families (1,302 prenatal families) and the average length of time that families continued in the program was 497 days. Intensity of services is based on each family’s needs, beginning weekly and moving gradually to quarterly home visits as families become more self-sufficient.

Download the 2007 Healthy Families Longitudinal Evaluation Report published November 2007 (46 pages)
Download the FY2007 (July 1, 2006 – June 30, 2007) Healthy Families Arizona Evaluation Report (97 pages)

Never Shake a Baby Arizona

By 2010, PCA Arizona, through the Never Shake a Baby program will have reached over 30,000 new parents at the time of their child's birth with life-saving information about coping with crying and the dangers of shaking. Trained nurses in birthing hospitals provide this evidence-based program, shown to reduce shaken baby syndrome by 47% in western New York where it was developed. Now in its fifth year in this state, the goal is to reach all new parents in Arizona. At this time, almost half of Arizona birthing hospitals are in the process of receiving the NSB training, or have already started educating new parents before they go home with their newborns. Never Shake a Baby Arizona provides new parent education on the stressors of crying infants and the dangers of shaking babies. Shaken Baby Syndrome is 100 percent preventable. Funded by the Child Abuse Prevention License Plate Program, the Arizona Community Foundation, BHHS Legacy Foundation and the Virginia G. Piper Charitable Foundation.

Yavapai Family Advocacy Center

This center provides provides a place where a multidisciplinary team of regional professionals — law enforcement, Child Protective Services (CPS), healthcare professionals, educators, therapists and prosecutors — come together to offer a coordinated response to support victims of child abuse and domestic violence. For the past nine years, the Advocacy Center has provided crisis intervention, forensic interviews, forensic medical exams, information and referrals, as well as follow up services to child and/or adult victims of abuse, neglect, domestic violence or sexual assault. The Advocacy Center also supports the aggressive prosecution of perpetrators. The Center houses victim advocates and a crisis counselor who work with victims and their families in the immediate aftermath of a violent crime to provide counseling, emotional support and referrals for community services.

One of 13 advocacy centers in Arizona, the Yavapai Family Advocacy Center in Prescott Valley serves all law enforcement jurisdictions in Yavapai County. Funded by the cities and towns within Yavapai County, as well as the Arizona Children's Justice Act grant, the Advocacy Center is a place where the hurting stops and the healing begins.