Our Organization:
Our History
CAPA was founded as a crisis and information hotline staffed by Junior Service League volunteers in 1975. Volunteers led parenting classes for new mothers in local hospitals and a community council was formed to prevent child abuse. CAPA became a United Way agency in 1978.
In the 1980's CAPA developed a day treatment program for abused children in partnership with the Children's Place, and started the first child sexual abuse treatment program in the area targeted towards extrafamilial abuse. During this same period CAPA became a Parent Anonymous support group sponsor and was approved as a State of Missouri contract treatment provider.
Throughout the 90's programs and services for abuse prevention and treatment grew rapidly. Child sexual abuse treatment was expanded; adding groups for sexually abused children and support groups for parents whose children had been molested to the existing individual and family counseling services. CAPA collaborated with Head Start locally to provide parenting education and support groups for high-risk families and became a Jackson County Mental Health Level III service provider. The Parents and Children Together (PACT) project began offering individual and group counseling, case management, and crisis assistance and prevention education to high-need families. Included in the new PACT services was a children's education group focusing on self-esteem, communication skills and non-violent problem resolution.
FOCIS (Focus on Children in Separation) classes for families going through divorce were also started in the 1990's. CAPA also developed consultation services on child sexual abuse prevention policies for churches, schools and other organizations. Retreats for sexual abuse survivors were offered in collaboration with local churches as well. Homes for the Heart was adopted as a guiding theme for the organization in 1991.
Since 2000, CAPA has started and expanded its Healthy Family Connections program. This highly effective prevention approach provides home-based case management and counseling services to high needs families with newborns over a 3-5 year period. An innovative crisis response program, providing crisis counseling and short-term groups was initiated to address growing requests for crisis assistance.
CAPA has focused on preventing and treating all forms of child abuse by providing a continuum of services in education, family support and counseling. The association is a 501(3)c not-for-profit organization, relying on donations and grants to provide essential services to children and families.