Childhelp Children’s Center of Arizona

Childhelp exists to meet the physical, emotional, educational, and spiritual needs of abused, neglected, and at-risk children. We focus our efforts on advocacy, prevention, treatment, and community outreach.

Childhelp was founded in 1959 by Sara O'Meara and Yvonne Fedderson after a "good will" tour of Japan to entertain the troops during the Korean War. While there, they encountered a group of Amerasian children orphaned and abandoned because of their mixed race. They returned to the United States and founded the International Orphans Inc. (IOI) which helped thousands of Amerasian orphans in Japan and Vietnam.

At the urging of Nancy Regean, in the mid-1970s they focused the charity's efforts on the problem of child abuse in America and the organizations was refocused as Childhelp. Today, Childhelp is one of the leading national nonprofits dedicated to preventing and treating child abuse-helping approximately 200,000 children last year alone. Childhelp offers a 24-hour national, toll-free child abuse hotline 1-800-4-A-CHILD, Speak Up Be Safe prevention programming, Advocacy Centers, Resident Treatment Facilities (Villages), Therapeutic Group Homes, and Therapeutic Foster Care and Adoption Services across the nation.

The Childhelp Children's Center of Arizona is the largest advocacy center in the state and services over 8,000 children and families every year. CCCAZ brings together the Phoenix Children's Hospital, Phoenix Police Department Crimes Against Children Unit, Department of Child Safety, Office of Child Welfare Investigations, and the Maricopa County Attorney's Office of Victim Services in house to provide a comprehensive resource to families and children in ongoing child abuse investigations. We provide child and family advocacy, forensic interviewing, crisis intervention, counseling, pet therapy, forensic medical examinations, and multi-disciplinary child abuse investigations all in house to reduce the trauma inflicted on the child and the non-offending family members that come through our doors. We exist "for the love of a child" and, like all Childhelp facilities, vow that, "Any child who enters here will find love."