About Us

From Compassionate Commitment to Collaboration

Four young colleagues began the Action for Child Protection journey having no idea where the pathway would lead or how long and how far. Compassion fueled the years with a driving energy and commitment. That was more than 40 years ago and now the youngest of those four, Theresa Costello, continues the commitment as the Chief Executive Officer for Action for Child Protection.

For over 40 years, our commitment has always been to help child welfare agencies improve what they do to serve families and protect children through developing higher standards and state of the art case practice.

In the last 40 years, Action for Child Protection has provided services in 45 states and territories, and is exceptionally proud to have served as the National Resource Center on Child Maltreatment, jointly with the Child Welfare Institute, and then independently as the National Resource Center for Child Protective Services for more than 15 years.

With a sustained collaborative spirit, our dedication is to continue working with our long-standing Federal, State, and local child welfare partners and community-based family support agencies. We continually seek new partners who share our commitment to the improvement of child welfare services and who support the delivery of quality services to vulnerable, at-risk populations.

Our Values

Our organizational values are also the same ones we believe facilitate quality child welfare practice. These values guide how we interact with one another and our many partners.

Respect

Respect

Acceptance of others and their experiences.

Self-determination

In pursuit of growth and change.

Self-determination
Openness

Openness

And inclusion, as opposed to interference.

Trust

In others and self as part of the change process.

Trust