{"id":190394,"date":"2026-05-12T18:42:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T18:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/190394\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T18:42:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T18:42:10","slug":"officials-tout-need-for-stable-sustainable-funding-for-advocacy-centers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/190394\/","title":{"rendered":"Officials tout need for stable, sustainable funding for advocacy centers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Community members and advocates on Tuesday toured the Children\u2019s Advocacy Center of Northeastern Pennsylvania in Scranton as part of a statewide series highlighting the essential work of such centers and the urgent need for stable, sustainable funding. Each year 14,000 children visit Pennsylvania\u2019s centers, 11,000 for suspected sexual abuse. The centers unite law enforcement, child welfare, prosecutors and medical professionals to respond to abuse in a coordinated, trauma-informed way. Policymakers are working to establish a Child Victim Recovery Fund, supported entirely by offender-paid fees, to create a sustainable funding stream for CACs statewide. The Scranton stop closed out the statewide tour.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Children\u2019s Advocacy Center of NEPA Executive Director Meghan Lennox Gagorik...\" class=\"size-article_inline\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/STT-L-CAC-0513-04.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Children\u2019s Advocacy Center of NEPA Executive Director Meghan Lennox Gagorik gives a tour of the conference room in the Children\u2019s Advocacy Center of NEPA in Scranton Tuesday, May 12, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG \/ STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)\n<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Children\u2019s Advocacy Center of NEPA Executive Director Meghan Lennox Gagorik...\" class=\"lazyload size-article_inline\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/STT-L-CAC-0513-02.jpg?w=620\"  bad-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/STT-L-CAC-0513-02.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Children\u2019s Advocacy Center of NEPA Executive Director Meghan Lennox Gagorik walks into the medical exam room during a tour in the Children\u2019s Advocacy Center of NEPA in Scranton Tuesday, May 12, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG \/ STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)\n<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Children\u2019s Advocacy Center of NEPA Executive Director Meghan Lennox Gagorik,...\" class=\"lazyload size-article_inline\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/STT-L-CAC-0513-03.jpg?w=620\"  bad-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/STT-L-CAC-0513-03.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Children\u2019s Advocacy Center of NEPA Executive Director Meghan Lennox Gagorik, center, gives a tour of the interview room with Director of Forensic Services Ashley Ceccacci, right, and state Rep. Kyle Donahue in the Children\u2019s Advocacy Center of NEPA in Scranton Tuesday, May 12, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG \/ STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)\n<\/p>\n<p>Show Caption<\/p>\n<p>1 of 3<\/p>\n<p>Children\u2019s Advocacy Center of NEPA Executive Director Meghan Lennox Gagorik gives a tour of the conference room in the Children\u2019s Advocacy Center of NEPA in Scranton Tuesday, May 12, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG \/ STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)\n<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#\" class=\"icon-enlarge mng-gallery-fullscreen-expand\" aria-label=\"Expand fullscreen slideshow\">Expand<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Community members and advocates on Tuesday toured the Children\u2019s Advocacy Center of Northeastern Pennsylvania in Scranton as part&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":190395,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[182,139,178,180,179,181],"class_list":["post-190394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-top-stories-stt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/190395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}