Our Team

In 1975, a group of professionals from law enforcement, child welfare, probation, social work, medicine, and others gathered in San Diego with one thing in mind…to create a better and coordinated community response to child abuse and neglect. From this visionary group, ideas became a reality in the founding of the San Diego County Child Abuse Coordinating Council, the Child Protection Team for child abuse case reviews, and what is now the Chadwick Center at Rady Children’s Hospital, San Diego.

The new hospital-based child protection program, led by Dr. David Chadwick, formally began its journey to provide quality programs and services for abused children in January 1976.

In the beginning, the program was simple with few staff providing physical abuse medical evaluations and a prevention program with parent aide home visitors. January 1979 was a defining moment in our growth when the Center began a contract with the City of San Diego to provide medical evaluations for victims of child sexual abuse.

So much has happened since 1976, many exciting, creative, innovative ideas, services and programs! Over that time span, funding dictated a variety of programs. However, Evaluation, Treatment, Intervention and Education remain the core programs at the Center. The Chadwick Center is a fully accredited member of the National Children’s Alliance.

The Office of Child Abuse Prevention (OCAP) administers federal grants, contracts, and state programs designed to promote best practices and innovative approaches to child abuse prevention, intervention and treatment. The OCAP serves as a statewide source of information, developing and disseminating educational material regarding prevention/early intervention programs, activities, and research. The federal grants administered by OCAP are the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA); Community Based Child Abuse Prevention (CBCAP); and Promoting Safe and Stable Families (PSSF).