Building up a new service for the abused child

In the Israeli context, the foundation of the Israeli Association for Child Protection was essential for promoting the cause of the abused child. This voluntary organization's aims are to provide direct treatment, to serve as a source of professional help to existing services and to act as a pressure group. However, the organization confronts difficulties stemming from the absence of legal status: it lacks legal authority to impose treatment, to bring the parent to court or to remove a child from home. In order to fulfill its functions, the voluntary organization must use power residing outside it. Another kind of difficulty was the need to maintain cooperation, though the very existence of the voluntary organization is often regarded as a threat to other services. Some of the solutions mentioned were the use of personal contacts, the presentation of the organization as a resource and the maintaining of high professional standards. The reactions of existing services to the new organization were: using it in order to avoid responsibility, constructive use of its resources and competition. The paper ends discussing the question whether one and the same organization can fulfill at the same time the functions of direct treatment, help to existing services and pressure group. They are apt to jeopardize each other, but by careful manipulation, they can be made to promote positive values.