The Office on Child Abuse and Neglect (OCAN) within the Children’s Bureau provides leadership in the field of child maltreatment. While the primary responsibility for responding to cases of child maltreatment rests with State and local agencies, OCAN serves as the national focal point for child abuse and neglect policy and program issues. The agency oversees interagency collaborative efforts, incl
uding inter- and intra- agency agreements; sponsors national conferences; and leads special initiatives related to child abuse and neglect prevention, intervention practice and systems reform. As the principal Federal coordination point for all activities related to ensuring the safety of children at risk, OCAN supports prevention activities through the Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention (CBCAP) Program and promotes improvements in Child Protective Service (CPS) systems through discretionary grant activities. Using funds from the Department of Justice’s Victim of Crimes Act (VOCA), OCAN manages the Children’s Justice Act (CJA) grants to improve the investigation and prosecution of serious child abuse and neglect cases, especially child sexual abuse, abuse related fatalities, and to reduce the trauma to the child victim.
