Working with Partners
Children's Advocacy Centers
Children’s advocacy centers (CACs) work with APS on abuse and neglect investigations. CACs provide an environment where community agencies share information and develop coordinated strategies to meet the needs of APS clients. They provide specialized forensic interviews and minimize the need for multiple agencies to interview victims of abuse separately. In 2016, 97 percent of the people in Texas lived in a county served by a CAC.
Texas Partners for APS & Resource Rooms
Texas Partners for Adult Protective Services is a statewide non-profit organization that works with APS to help improve the lives of clients by developing resources that support APS clients. Twenty-five non-profits elect members to Texas Partners, which works with local boards to raise funds and educate the public and service providers on elder abuse issues. Texas Partners and local boards raise donations to stock emergency resource rooms in APS offices with supplies that APS caseworkers use, 24 hours a day, to help adults who are being abused or neglected. In FY 2015, there were 44 resource rooms meeting needs in 157 Texas counties. Resource rooms go by different names such as Bridge Rooms, Silver Star Rooms, and Silver Ribbon Rooms.
Public Awareness Campaign
It's Everyone's Business is an APS outreach campaign done every May to promote ways to protect the elderly and adults with disabilities from abuse and neglect. The major goals of the campaign are to raise awareness about the problems of adult abuse, neglect, and financial exploitation, increase awareness of APS programs and services, and enlist community support for clients and resources. In October, the campaign focuses on financial exploitation by working with organizations that provide services to vulnerable adults and supplying them with information on financial exploitation. See www.EveryonesBusiness.org for more information.