The center has exam rooms for Sexual Assualt Nurse Examinations to be performed.[/caption]Williamson County Children’s Advocacy Center intends to provide a comfortable place for children and families to move forward after a traumatic experience.
“[It’s] where healing and justice begins for the victim,” said Marlene McMichael, president of the WCCAC board of directors.
The nonprofit, celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, started out as a safe place for children to talk about alleged sexual and physical abuse. The organization has grown to include counseling, medical exams and more.
Child Protective Services or law-enforcement officials refer children to WCCAC, which then conducts forensic interviews witnessed in real-time by law enforcement, Executive Director Monica Benoit-Beatty said. Interviewers ask age-appropriate and open-ended questions that can be used in prosecuting a case.
The center interviewed 638 children in Williamson County in 2016, according to data collected by WCCAC.
Children can also receive Sexual Assault Nurse Examinations conducted by trained professionals—but currently only 96 hours or more after the abuse, Benoit-Beatty said.
Exams given before the 96-hour period are more likely to reveal bodily evidence and are more time consuming.
Benoit-Beatty said there are currently no registered pediatric SANE nurses in Williamson County and that the organization is in the process of applying for grant funding that would allow WCCAC to provide the exams before the 96-hour period.
Counselors at WCCAC provide trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy for children ages 2-17 years, Benoit-Beatty said. The center logged more than 3,797 counseling sessions in 2016.
Benoit-Beatty (right) serves as WCCAC’s executive director andMcMichael on the board of directors.[/caption]
WCCAC also commits to educating the public on detecting signs of child abuse.
“What we do here is not only amazing, but it is fundamental and basic to who we are as humans and what we need to do as humans,” McMichael said.
The center trained 3,935 teaching and child care professionals and youth advocates on how to recognize signs and symptoms of child abuse and how to respond in 119 sessions held last year, according to WCCAC data.
In 2015, about 90 percent of alleged abusers were in some way related to the victim, according to the National Children’s Alliance, which works to empower communities to serve child abuse victims.
“That’s a lot of children, and that’s the ones we know about,” McMichael said.
Benoit-Beatty said the goal is to intervene, nurture and rehabilitate children who come to WCCAC.
“We know when a child has come through the doors, the worst has happened to them,” Benoit-Beatty said. “We help them heal so they can grow up to be a happy, healthy, whole adult.”
The organization, which is recognizing National Child Abuse Prevention Month in April, has a motto of “We can’t change what happened to them previously, but we can affect their future.”
How can you report child abuse?
- Child abuse hotline: 800-252-5400
- www.txabusehotline.org
- Call 911
Williamson County Children’s Advocacy Center
1811 SE Inner Loop, Georgetown
512-943-3701
www.wilcocac.org
Hours: Mon.-Thu. 8 a.m.-6 p.m., Fri. 8 a.m-5 p.m., closed Sat. and Sun.
