New child advocacy center helps victimized children

RAYMOND, Wash. — It will soon be easier for Pacific County families to seek treatment and justice when a child is abused or assaulted.

Thanks to a generous anonymous grant and a new collaboration between local authorities, Raymond-based nonprofit Crisis Support Network will soon open the county’s first child advocacy center. The new program and facility will enable police, social workers, advocates and others to coordinate services for child victims in one welcoming local setting.

Child advocacy centers have a number of benefits, Crisis Support Network Director Kathryn Burr said. They minimize trauma for victims, reduce stress and expense for victims’ families, increase cooperation between law enforcement, social services and families, and help investigators build stronger cases.

“It’s kind of a one-stop-shop ideology,” Burr explained. “All the services are going to the victim, instead of the victim having to do just crazy multiple interviews — going here for this, there for that.”

2 After about seven years of working with victims of domestic violence and sexual assault, advocate Rachel Stanton is still passionate about helping abused kids. But by 2015, Stanton knew there had to be a more compassionate and efficient way to help families cope with the strain of abuse and assault investigations. When abuse comes to light, families quickly find themselves caught in a whirlwind of appointments — and agencies, Stanton and Burr said.

The victim has to undergo both a specialized physical examination and a forensic interview. Investigators, Child Protective Services, therapists, attorneys and other experts may ask the victim and his or her family to take additional steps. Few specialized services are available in Pacific County, so historically, these emotionally — and often financially — devastated families have had to drive to appointments in Aberdeen, Chehalis or Olympia, Washington, on subsequent days, reliving their trauma at each stop.

In cases where the perpetrator was also the breadwinner, “Families have bigger concerns,” Burr said. “Where are you going to live? Is there enough gas in the car to get to Olympia?”

“You are talking about daylong drives,” Stanton said. “Their little heads and bellies are thinking, ‘I’m gonna have to go and talk about this traumatic, horrible thing that happened to me’ for the whole entire drive. It’s horrible.”

3 In early 2015, Burr joined Crisis Support Network, and Pacific County Prosecutor Mark McClain took office. Both recognized that advocates and law enforcement officers often served the same people, but more or less worked in isolation, and they wanted to change that. They knew that child advocacy centers in other parts of the state were working well. The first step, Burr and McClain said, was to foster more understanding and communication between advocates and police. The next step was to create a multidisciplinary team — a coalition of health care and social service providers, police, advocates and prosecutors that is charged with finding ways to serve citizens in a more collaborative way.

4 Setting up the multidisciplinary team took up most of 2015. For much of that time, Burr was nervous about the project. She knew about the growing body of evidence that child advocacy centers better meet the needs of victims, and reduce the chances that victims or their families will recant their testimony or drop charges to avoid the stress of an investigation. However, the centers must meet exacting state and federal standards. They require specially trained staff, use expensive equipment, and handle complex, emotionally challenging caseloads. She thought it was too important to take lightly.

“I want it to be solid. I want it to mean something,” Burr said.

Stanton and McClain, on the other hand, were each convinced the child advocacy center would solve a lot of stubborn problems.

“Rachel really went out to the community and said. ‘I’m not waiting! Let’s make it happen.’ Wait! Hold on! Slow down! Basically, I was railroaded,” Burr said, laughing. By the time the project got going in earnest last year, she was enthusiastic.

5 Proponents found an ally in Katie Lindstrom, the county’s Department of Public Health and Human Services deputy director.

“Her ability to fund-raise is really the thing that took this from being a four-year project to a six-month project,” McClain said. Though the state provided roughly $70,000 in “seed money,” the child advocacy center didn’t become a sure thing until Lindstrom secured a three-year grant for more than $350,000 from a private foundation that gave its gift on condition of anonymity.

Lindstrom’s work on that grant helped put the project in “hyperdrive,” McClain said. “She’s just a grant monster! A powerhouse.”

The foundation just disbursed its first gift, of about $135,000. That money will pay for remodeling, new equipment and other startup costs. Recently, community volunteers painted a mural on the wall of the center’s interview room. Burr will soon begin recruiting a new coordinator, who will be in charge of ensuring that the process runs as smoothly as possible for each client. Over the next few weeks, Burr will also start the process of recruiting and training several forensic interviewers — probably retired police, experienced foster parents and others who have some experience with abused kids. Technicians are working on installing discreet monitors, recording equipment and other technology.

Burr and McClain estimate that the center will serve roughly 60 children per year.

The whole system, Burr said, is focused on “minimizing trauma.”