Fundraiser benefits abused children
The Fall Bingo, Bags and Badges fundraiser benefiting Norma’s House will be held at the Yoakum Community Center Thursday, Nov. 13.
The event is now offered two times a year between the three counties that Norma’s House serves: Gonzales, Lavaca and DeWitt). Children’s Advocacy Centers began hosting the event in 2015.
In 2024, Norma’s House celebrated 25 years of promoting hope, dignity and healing for the children of our communities. From Sept. 1, 2024 to Aug. 31, 2025, Norma’s House reviewed 876 Statewide Intakes for abuse/neglect, served 516 children, provided 228 forensic interviews, performed 59 medical exams, 98 children and 26 adults were provided therapy for a total of 1012 sessions, 192 families participated in Family Advocacy Services, 417 cases were reviewed by the Multidisciplinary Team, had over 20 volunteers work 1,460 hours and provided 57 outreach and education events.
Children’s Advocacy Centers (CAC) came about in the 1980’s when a lack of communication between social services and law enforcement was identified in cases of abused children. One of the goals of children advocacy centers was to have regular case reviews by children’s advocacy centers, law enforcement, prosecuting attorneys, children’s protective services and medical and mental health workers, to all come together to discuss the cases of child maltreatment. Norma’s House provides these meetings monthly to every county that we work with.
Another goal of the children’s advocacy centers was to have the child tell their stories the least number of times as possible. Children were often retraumatized by the numerous separate encounters with all the different MDT members, who were really trying to help them. For example, say a child came to school with a black eye. He would potentially be asked by his teacher, school nurse, school counselor, principal, school resource officer, cps, law enforcement officer, referred to a medical profession, etc. The goal of a children’s advocacy center is to LIMIT the number of times a child has to tell their story as to what happened to them. We combine all the people listed above so that the child can tell their story once.
The core services that Norma’s House provides is forensic interviews of children, forensic interviews of victims of sexual assaults, therapy to children and their supportive family members, medical treatment when needed, accompaniment to appointments, and we follow the family from the start of the case until resolution (usually a court hearing).
The first CAC in Texas was developed in the early 1990’s. By 1994 there were 13 CAC’s across Texas. Norma’s House first came into the planning stages about 1997, officially became a 501c3 in 1999 and began providing services to children. Norma’s House was the first RURAL children’s advocacy center in Texas. We became a fully operating credited member of CACTX in 2001. We have been an accredited member of the National Children’s Alliance since 2003.
Texas now has 70 Children’s Advocacy Centers and we officially cover just about every county in Texas.
Some CAC’s do more, such as Norma’s House. We also provide outreach to the community. We will do programs in the school to teach students on how to be safe, or what to do if they are not safe. We provide programs to teachers, day care personnel, church staff, and volunteers on how to recognize and report child abuse. We try to be involved in every community event just to make people aware of our existence and how we are helpful.
Norma’s House has an awesome relationship with these agencies and together we provide the best care for the children who need us.
Our funding is provided by grants, both federal and state, fundraising, donations, and agreement funding by city and county governments. We never charge the family for the services we provide.
