not working together in an effective manner and this created the common problem of adding to children's emotional distress, and created a segmented, repetitious, and often frightening experience for the child victims. He pulled together law enforcement, criminal justice, child protective service, medical and mental health workers into one coordinated team that would serve child victims of crime in a respectful way. Thirty years ago, this was a revolutionary idea. Child advocacy centers in the USA are accredited by the National Children's Alliance. The Child Advocate in the USA is a national not for profit organization with connections to hundreds of other organizations and resources to address sexual abuse but also many other advocacy needs for children and families. Their goals are to serve the needs of children, families and professionals while addressing mental health, medical, educational, legal and legislative issues. Child advocacy organizations in the USA at the policy level exist at state and national levels and as transnational NGOs. The organizations that they work in vary from smaller organizations at the local level to multinational voluntary organizations concerned about international child rights. The United Nations On the international stage, the United Nations has long advocated on behalf of children through UNICEF, whose position on children was formulated and publicly formalized in the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The convention sets out a summary of collective ideals and a covenant of commitments to all children on the planet. Philosophy One thing that all child advocates have in common is healthy respect for young children. There is also recognition that in most countries, children are not seen as having full citizenship status which confers certain rights and responsibilities as adults. Child advocates provide assistance to children both in the foster care setting and children who are going through any court system. They provide the necessary counseling to the adults in child/children's lives to ensure a high quality of life for the child. The most important person to the advocate is the child. The philosophy of a child advocate is to guarantee that the caretakers of any child are receiving the proper tools that are necessary for raising that child, guaranteeing a satisfactory life. See also Berkshire Industrial Farm Children's Ombudsman Children's rights References Child-related organizations Advocacy groups