Knudsen Announces Grant For Red Bird Woman Center
Attorney General Austin Knudsen has announced the Montana Department of Justice awarded four Children’s Advocacy Centers with nearly $150,000 in grant funds to help improve their care for child survivors of crime and abuse. The funding comes from a Johnson & Johnson settlement that resolved allegations the company manufactured, marketed and knowingly sold baby powder tainted with carcinogenic asbestos.
The grants included $25,243.20 for the Fort Peck Tribes Red Bird Woman Center.
CACs are facilities that provide care and support for children who have been abused or been a victim of a crime during the investigative process. Since 2024, the nine accredited CAC programs in the state and the Children’s Alliance of Montana each received $20,000 to support their work serving victims of crime and abuse in the first and second phases of the grant funding. In this third phase, accredited CACs are eligible to apply for and receive up to $50,000 in grant funding annually through the program.
“Montana’s child advocacy centers provide a supportive and safe environment for children during difficult times. That is why it is important that the have the funding they need to continue providing these critical services when Montanans need them the most,” Knudsen said.
The third phase of the grant program allows CACs to request funds for equipment and information technology; location, environment, and physical setting; and professional training expenses.
Other programs that received funding from the third phase so far included:
• Emma’s House Child Advocacy Center, Hamilton: $37,874.69
• Lewis and Clark County CAC of AWARE, Inc.: $49,688.50
• First Step – Providence St. Patrick Hospital: $29,700.80 “We are deeply grateful to CACs provide a mentally and physically safe environment for abused children and their non-offending family members following a report of sexual abuse. The centers are a place for the multidisciplinary team (MDT) performing the investigation and caring for the child to convene, so the child does not have to go see each professional separately, which reduces the chance of additional trauma and the number of interviews or disclosures the child must give.
