Chapter recognized for thorough processes and clear documentation
The Indiana Chapter of Child Advocacy Centers has been recommended for re-accreditation by the National Children’s Alliance (NCA). That recommendation will now move forward to the NCA Board for final consideration at its January 28, 2026 meeting.
Re-accreditation occurs every five years. The process looks at CAC development, support, and inspects how a chapter governs itself, documents its work, and supports CACs in meaningful, sustainable ways.
As retiring Indiana Chapter Director Jan Lutz explained, “The standards are pretty clear. But how each Chapter meets them is different. Much of the work involves detailed process documentation, and even when a standard has not changed, the way a Chapter fulfills it may have.”
For instance, NCA Chapter Accreditation Standards outline how a Chapter helps support the development of a new CAC in its region. Lutz noted, “For Indiana, we have a stable and well-distributed network of CACs, allowing the vast majority of families to access services without long travel times.”
Rather than saying certain services no longer happen or are necessary, “Which would not be an acceptable answer,” says Lutz, “The Chapter must demonstrate how it would respond if the need arose. In Indiana, where every county has reasonable access to a CAC, “We’d say, ‘happy to have a conversation’, but the first step would be asking the next closest CAC if they wanted to add a facility as a satellite location in that county.”
“This was really a snapshot of what is happening now,” Lutz said. Indiana’s reaccreditation review was conducted entirely virtually, consistent with current NCA practices and travel cost reductions, all with the 2020 standards. Given the timing, the Indiana Chapter was one of the first to use the new 2020 standards and now one of the last to use them for re-accreditation as new ones are expected in 2026.
“Our reviewer was from the East Coast,” Lutz said, “and she was very complimentary of how we’re doing business and how CACs are doing business with the Chapter.”
The reviewer examined the Chapter’s written application and also met virtually with Chapter leadership and the Executive Board. In addition, Lutz invited leaders from eight representative CACs across the state to participate in small group or one-on-one conversations with the site reviewer.
“Indiana is unique in that we developed a purpose statement because of the wishes of the CACs,” Lutz said. During the review, CAC leaders demonstrated clear awareness of that statement and affirmed that the Chapter is living up to it.
“We certainly believe that chapters have to be accredited, like CACs,” Lutz said. “They are our benchmarks and guideposts. It’s how we make sure we’re giving CACs what they need,” Lutz said, “and conducting ourselves in the most current governance models that a nonprofit should be conducting itself.”