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Children’s Advocacy Center Services
The Children’s Advocacy Center of East Central Missouri is one of 13 child advocacy centers in the state of Missouri. The center was developed in a community based collaborative effort to improve the system’s response to allegations of child abuse and neglect of a serious (criminal) nature.
Our Program: The Children’s Advocacy Center is a child-focused program which serves as a community resource and supports agencies that respond to child abuse within a nine county region. The Children’s Advocacy Center of East Central Missouri Has Two Locations:
Our DeSoto office serves the eastern side of our region which includes Jefferson, St. Francois, Washington, Ste. Genevieve, Madison and Iron counties. Our Sullivan office serves the western side of our region which includes Franklin, Crawford and Phelps counties. Our Sullivan office comes at no cost to the center, as its lease is being donated by the Missouri Baptist Hospital – Sullivan, and the renovations and maintenance have been donated by the Bank of Sullivan, and true symbol of community support. Our Services We provide a child-friendly setting for children to be interviewed regarding child abuse allegations of a serious or criminal nature. The child forensic interviews are developmentally appropriate and forensically sound. Each interview is videotaped, with the permission of the child’s parent or guardian, to preserve the child’s statement and to demonstrate the manner in which the child was interviewed. This also reduces the number of interviews children are subjected to during the investigative process. We promote and facilitate the multidisciplinary team approach to child abuse. We require that the investigators from law enforcement and Division of Family Services who are assigned to each case are present at the center as the forensic interview of the child takes place. The center staff also meets regularly with multidisciplinary teams in each of the counties we serve to provide case review of each case referred to the center. This allows for case tracking of each case from report date to final court disposition. We provide victim advocacy for every child and family we serve. Our child advocates provide follow-up calls to families after their visit to the center to ensure referrals are in place and all concerns are addressed. At our DeSoto location, we provide Sexual Abuse Forensic Evaluations, which are medical exams for child sexual abuse victims. At our Sullivan location, we provide extended interviews for those children who have a difficult time disclosing abuse in the forensic interview setting. The extended interview occurs over six session within a three week time frame. It allows our MSW, LCSW forensic interviewer to build rapport with the child and offer a slower paced opportunity for disclosure.
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COMTREA Main Office: Festus, Missouri 636-931-2700
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