Tupelo-based Children's Advocacy Center to host open house this week
TUPELO - Representatives of a rebranded nonprofit that helps investigate potential cases of child abuse, trafficking and similar crimes hope an upcoming open house will spread awareness of their work.
If You Go
If You Go
What: Easterseals Mississippi Children's Advocacy Center open house and ribbon cutting
When: Thursday, Nov. 7, from 4 p.m. until 6 p.m.
Where: 2901 Eason Boulevard, Tupelo
Why: The CAC helps different agencies – law enforcement, child protective services, etc. – investigate allegations of the physical or sexual abuse of children, cases of neglect, and instances in which a child has witnessed a violent crime. They serve 50-60 children monthly and hope to raise awareness of their work.
Easterseals Mississippi Children's Advocacy Center (CAC) in Tupelo will hold an open house and ribbon cutting for their new facility at 2901 Eason Boulevard in Tupelo this Thursday, Nov. 7, from 4 p.m. until 6 p.m. There will be refreshments and door prizes.
Although open since the mid-aughts under a different umbrella, the CAC has operated under national nonprofit Easterseals since last year. Easterseals is a Chicago-based nonprofit that supports a national network of affiliates. According to the organization's website, these include organizations that provide early childhood education, autism services, medical rehabilitation and employment programs, veterans' services and more.
The change in ownership brought with it an entirely new staff, but not a new mission.
Staff members at the CAC help different agencies — law enforcement, child protective services, etc. — investigate allegations of the physical or sexual abuse of children, cases of neglect and instances in which a child has witnessed a violent crime. They serve 50-60 children monthly, each between the ages of 4 to 18 years old.
Child protective services or law enforcement refer the children seen by CAC staffers. One of the CAC's primary services is to conduct forensic interviews. These non-leading, fact-finding conversations allow the child to speak about their experiences and reasons for being brought to ESMS CAC. Children often struggle to explain complex emotions or emotionally painful experiences; forensic interviewers are trained to help children understand these feelings as accurately as possible.
"What we do is vital for the whole MDT (multidisciplinary team) team," said Alicia Asters, administrative and operations assistant for Easterseals Mississippi Children's Advocacy Center. An MDT is a group of people representing different agencies, including law enforcement, child protective services and others, working together toward a common goal.
Forensic interviews are a required step in the process of determining the accuracy of abuse or neglect allegations.
"Before anything can go forward, law enforcement is calling us to schedule an interview with the child," Asters said. "This allows the child to come to just one place. Not to, like, a social worker, the counselor at their school, a hospital and then to law enforcement. It's under one roof. When the child comes in, we try to make it as friendly as we can. We want them to feel safe and loved and cared for when they come in."
They'll even provide snacks.
"Even something simple like that you can offer a child makes them feel comfortable," Asters said.
Whichever agency brings the child to Easterseals will watch footage of the forensic interview and determine the next steps. That could be removing the child from a potentially dangerous environment, arresting a suspect, etc.
"What they need to do to provide justice for the child, or healing for the child ... whatever it might be," Asters said. "Sometimes, when you get through the forensic interview, some things need to be done, and some things are a wash."
Easterseals currently has a small staff: a director, two forensic interviewers and an equal number of family advocates and another family advocate who works specifically on cases of sex trafficking, among a few other positions. That includes Asters, who helps raise money for the nonprofit.
The Tupelo-based CAC serves eight Northeast Mississippi counties, including Alcorn, Itawamba, Lee, Pontotoc, Prentiss, Tippah, Tishomingo and Union.
Sara Kitchens, the agency's director, said she hopes this week's open house will introduce people to both the services being offered by the CAC and why those services are needed.
"We're really just hoping for a lot of community awareness. With the amount of children we see in a month, the amount of referrals we get daily, weekly, there's still so many people in the community that really just don't realize the things going on with these children," Kitchens said. "We just want to get some awareness out there and, hopefully, end child abuse. That's our ultimate goal. But if we can get some awareness and prevention efforts out in our community, I think that's a great start."
