The Child Advocacy Studies program at the University of South Carolina Upstate was awarded the first Child Advocacy Studies (CAST) Higher Education Program of the Year Award by the Gundersen National Child Protection Training Center Violence Intervention and Prevention (VIP) Summit on Wednesday, June 22 in Atlantic City, N.J.

“This award is given in recognition of your exemplary efforts to grow the CAST program within your university as well as your commitment and dedication to furthering the development and effectiveness of the CAST program as a whole,” said Victor Vieth, founder and senior director of Gundersen National Child Protection Training Center.

The Child Advocacy Studies (CAST) minor is an interdisciplinary minor that provides comprehensive training to students who plan to work in a variety of areas serving children. The goal is to provide more comprehensive undergraduate training in the following:

• understand healthy child development
• understand factors that lead to child maltreatment
• understand the responses to maltreatment, to work more effectively within various systems and institutions that respond to these incidents.
• recognize child abuse and make high quality child abuse reports
• receive training in best practices with victims

“This was an easy selection for us since your program stands out in so many ways,” said Betsy Goulet, CAST Coordinator.

To learn more, contact Dr. Jennifer Parker at (864) 503-5671 or jparker@uscupstate.edu.

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