The Lancaster County Children’s Alliance – which assists local police in numerous child-abuse cases – has received national accreditation.

The National Children’s Alliance announced the prestigious membership earlier this month.

The LCCA has been serving the county for 10 years, providing medical exams and mental-health services for an estimated hundreds of child sex-abuse victims every year.

Also essential, the LCCA conducts interviews of child victims, which are often key to prosecution of offenders in court. Local police and prosecutors rely heavily on the LCCA, now a nationally-recognized Children’s Advocacy Center (CAC).

Local police are referring more child-abuse cases to District Attorney Craig Stedman’s office every year, in turn, increasing the demand on LCCA to perform such important duties.

Last year, 383 instances of child abuse were referred to the DA’s office. So far this year, that number has climbed to 515.

The LCCA is involved in most of those cases.

On Friday, Nov. 20, the LCCA seeks donors during the Extraordinary Give, a 24-hour marathon of donating to local non-profit groups engineered by the Lancaster County Community Foundation.

Donations can be made here: goo.gl/e1Vynx

MEDIA CONTACT: Brett A. Hambright, 717-295-2041; bhambright@co.lancaster.pa.us;                           Twitter: @BrettHambright