After 25 years, a Vicksburg child advocacy group’s name change came with new programs.

The Exchange Club’s CAP Center — formerly CAP stood for Child Abuse Prevention and now it stands for Child and Parent — has a plan in action.

“Child Abuse Prevention Center was misleading,” said Executive Director Erma Driver. “There’s a stigma that goes with that because no one wants to be associated with child abuse. So we changed the name and we’ve gotten a lot more support now that people realize that’s not all we do.”

On Friday, the CAP Center ended its two-week-long summer enrichment camp for teens who are struggling academically, a first for the agency, and a year of celebration of the agency’s 25 years in Vicksburg.

The summer camp was held at the AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps Southern Region on Confederate Avenue.

“I knew that the children we serve are in crisis,“ said Driver, “and to be faced and challenged with poor academics and poverty and abuse is just too much. So we brought them together to spend special time with a special population.”

Behavior specialists, Vicksburg Warren School District teachers hired through the Project SYNC grant program, community leaders and businesses were recruited to instruct the 30 students who enrolled. The camp focused on supplemental curriculum on reading, math, language and computer as well as physical activities.

The camp was one of many activities and events staged by the CAP Center during the past year as Driver, a Jackson resident hired in 2009, marketed the agency into a center for the entire family.

“The CAP Center for over 25 years has evolved,” she said. “It has evolved into a place where the entire family can come to be strengthened. Not only do we offer child advocacy programs, but programs for parents who just want to be good parents.”

As part of the 25th anniversary celebration, the center hosted Party in Park for about 800 children, Driver said.

Additionally, the CAP Center unveiled a new, more user-friendly website, www.capcenter.net.

Other programs include family intervention services; Parent Aide, a one-on-one parent program; parent education; drug and violence prevention; teen pregnancy prevention; Court Appointed Special Advocate, or CASA; mentoring; and Project H.Y.M.E., or helping young men excel.

The center’s move last year from the Walnut Street location to a bigger office at Manor Drive and Wisconsin Avenue has allowed for more space, Driver said.

The center serves about 80 percent of child abuse cases in Warren County, or 120 cases, Driver said. The other 20 percent are seen by the Mississippi Department of Human Services.

Parent Aide has helped 57 families and more than 400 in the parent education courses, Driver said. A total of about 3,000 students in the school district receive help through the prevention programs.

The cost of offering those programs has increased along with the number of programs.

The center lost nearly $100,000 in funding last summer when state budgets were cut, Driver said.

“We’re in big trouble now,” she said. “Our needs are great because we’re doing greater things. In order to do what we’re doing and make it quality and not compromise the integrity of the program, we have to have funds to do it.’

The center operates on a $360,000 annual budget and was able to recover $30,000 of the major loss from a grant through Project SYNC, a program through the local school district.

The financial shortfall has forced the center, a private, nonprofit agency, to really seek money through corporate sponsorships, private donations and various fund-raisers.

The center, along with the two other CAP Centers across the state, are participating in the Birdies for Charities pledge drive during the 2011 Viking Classic golf tournament in Madison.

The CAP Center, which opened its doors March 4, 1985, receives funds from the Exchange Club of Vicksburg, the United Way of West Central Mississippi, the Mississippi Department of Mental Health, the Mississippi Department of Public Safety-Victims of Crime Acts, Vicksburg Warren School District Project SYNC, the Warren County Board of Supervisors, the City of Vicksburg, International Paper and private donors.

A 14-member board of directors governs the center, which employes six people.