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By Carey Reeder | Managing Editor

Butterfly Bridge Children’s Advocacy Center became a fully accredited member of the National Children’s Alliance in January, solidifying themselves at the upper echelon of the nonprofit work they do.

The National Children’s Alliance is the national association and accrediting body for the over 900 children’s advocacy centers in the United States. The organization provides support, advocacy, quality assurance and national leadership to help support the important work the centers do for children their respective communities. Butterfly Bridge went through a lengthy process to achieve the accreditation status that took the help of the entire nonprofit’s staff, multidisciplinary team and board of directors.

“The accreditation we now have as a fully-accredited child advocacy center demonstrates we are operating at a level of excellence that ensures the best possible outcomes for the children and families that we serve,” Jana Zuelzke, Executive Director of Butterfly Bridge Children’s Advocacy Center, said. “The process was a very rigorous one we went through, but one we were very committed to, because we do not think the kids we serve deserve anything less.”

Assistant Director Emily Hutcheson worked through most of the tedious paperwork that came with the application for the accreditation. It was very in depth, and it took over six months of gathering information by the nonprofit staff to complete the application.

“We knew we had a stellar staff, but this further confirmed it for us when we saw the staff willing to do what it took to be a part of this process,” Zuelzke said.

In order to become a fully-accredited member of the NCA, there are 10 National Standards of Accreditation that must be met. The 10 standards are — multidisciplinary team approach, diversity, equity and access of services, forensic interviews, victim support and advocacy, medical evaluations, mental health, case review and coordination, case tracking, organizational capacity and child safety and protection. These 10 standards ensure child abuse victims throughout the country receive effective, efficient and compassionate services.

Zuelzke and Hutcheson assigned certain standards to staff members to have a more individualized focus on each one, such as the nonprofit’s therapists focusing on the mental health standard. This ensured that each standard had everything needed with it to pass once the review process began.

“We are fortunate that we had so many members of our team, staff and board that really saw the need for this and were willing to put in the time and effort,” Hutcheson said.

The research was completed and the application was submitted in December 2022, and the review process by the NCA began. The review process included zoom meetings to meet with BBCAC staff members and board members to discuss their roles within the nonprofit, and an on-site review day. The on-site review day happened last summer, and representatives from the NCA came out to the Butterfly Bridge campus to observe operations, sat in on meetings and interviewed staff, multidisciplinary team and board members.

After all parts of the review process was completed, and over a year since sending in their original application, BBCAC got its official letter just after the beginning of this year that it received full accreditation.

“We want to be excellent, and we want people to come to our agency and know they are getting the best care possible and we are doing things at a standard that is above most,” Hutcheson said.

Now a fully-accredited member with the NCA, the prestigious honor will open more doors for the nonprofit when it comes to grants and funding for the future.

“Now that we have gone through that long process (of accreditation), funders and our community will have even greater confidence in the work that we do,” Zuelzke said. “This underscores that we are a leader among child advocacy centers in our state and our nation because we have reached this status.”

Butterfly Bridge will be re-accredited with the National Children’s Alliance every five years.