Join the Traverse Bay Children's Advocacy Center & Team Zero for the annual Circle of Friends Luncheon. Friends, business leaders, community supporters & advocates will gather to benefit TBCAC’s work to create ‘trauma informed’ communities where all children are safe…and no child ever faces sexual or physical abuse alone. Networking 11:30am Lunch 11:50am Speakers 12:00 Join the Circle.

"Stories form the Circle" is a collection of first person accounts of real life encounters with children and families affected by sexual abuse, physical abuse, and witness to violence. Told by members of the multidisciplinary team, these personal reflections of help hope, and healing will inform and inspire you.

The Traverse Bay Children’s Advocacy Center (TBCAC) is a regional response center for the protection and well-being of children, specifically as a safe haven for children and families suffering from the trauma of sexual abuse, physical abuse, and witness to violence. We are a community based, child-focused and child-friendly facility in which representatives from many disciplines, including law enforcement, child protection, prosecution, mental health, medical and victim advocacy, work together to investigate abuse, help children heal from abuse, and hold offenders accountable. In addition to intervention at the level of individual children and families, TBCAC benefits regional communities with such services as professional training, agency consultation and community education and awareness on child maltreatment.

TBCAC has the largest service area in the state of Michigan, currently serving Antrim, Benzie, Grand Traverse, Kalkaska, Leelanau and Wexford counties, and the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians.

The need is great and heartbreaking – locally and nationally. One in ten children are sexually abused annually. In the Grand Traverse region, the average age for victims is just four years old. Since forming in 2010, the TBCAC has served over 1,200 child victims and 1,500 non-offending caregivers and family members. This include close to 300 children in 2016 alone. All receive specialized care, free-of-charge, for as long as needed.