Advocates push state legislators to step up effort to protect victims of child abuse, rape

Virginia’s Children’s Advocacy Centers conducted 7,203 forensic interviews in cases of suspected physical or sexual abuse in 2025.

And they’re just scratching the surface.

The CDC tells us that one in four girls and one in 13 boys are, right know, as you read this, victims of physical or sexual abuse.

Let’s do some math here: the latest Census data tells us that there are 1.9 million kids – age: 0-17 – in Virginia.

That would mean roughly 300,000 kids in Virginia were victims of abuse in 2025.

We talked to 2.3 percent of them.

“Throughout my career, I have worked with thousands of children who were victims of sexual abuse, trafficking, and other crimes against children. For many reasons – fear, shame, age, or instability – these children and their families often do not contact legislators about their experience. That is why we must use our voices to advocate for those who can’t or won’t advocate for themselves,” said Rebecca Simmons, the executive director of Children’s Advocacy Centers of Virginia, which hosted an Advocacy Day at the State Capitol this week, to lobby state legislators for full state funding to ensure all children across the Commonwealth have access to services provided by CACs.

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ICYMI

• ‘We’re denying them justice’: Virginia needs to step up to protect victims of child rape

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Our CACs currently get $7 million a year from the state toward their budgets. The estimated need: another $8.1 million annually.

As it stands, the nonprofits raise the extra money that they need to keep the lights on by passing the hat – translation: taking staff time away from doing their job to assist victims of child abuse, neglect, rape, to organize golf tournaments and spaghetti suppers.

It’s already a hard job.

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Children’s Advocacy Centers provide a coordinated, child-friendly response when a child is suspected of being abused, in the process, obtaining evidence through neutral forensic interviews and forensic medical exams, as well as coordinating investigations with law enforcement and child protection, and connecting children and families to advocacy and evidence-based mental health services.

And here’s the hard reality: as I noted above, we only know about a fraction of these cases, because 90 percent of abuse cases involve a perpetrator who is known to the victim – a parent, close family member, family friend – who either manipulates the victim into silence, or worse, threatens or uses violence to keep the secret.

Another uncomfortable reality: even plugging this funding hole for existing CACs in Virginia wouldn’t address the entire problem we’re facing here – about 20 percent of the state doesn’t have access to a CAC, including, per a coverage map from the website of the National Children’s Alliance, including a wide swath of Northern Virginia and the Northern Neck, and parts of the Richmond suburbs, Hampton Roads, Southside and Southwest Virginia.

“Every child in Virginia deserves access to these services, regardless of where they live,” Simmons said. “Fully funding Virginia’s CACs is not optional – it is a moral responsibility. I urge community members across the Commonwealth to contact their state senators and delegates and tell them to prioritize and fully fund Children’s Advocacy Centers.”

What Children’s Advocacy Centers do, why they need your help

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