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SafeHarbor
is a child-friendly environment for children and youth subjected to sexual
abuse, severe physical abuse and/or neglect.
Advantages of a Child
Advocacy
Center:
·
Reduces the number of interviews a child
victim must endure, which reduces the trauma to the child
·
Creates a comfortable, child-friendly
environment for the investigation as opposed to the environment typically
experienced in a hospital emergency room or police station
·
Greatly reduces the time victims and their
families spend assisting with the investigation because all services are
provided at one location. What once took weeks can often be achieved in
hours.
·
Reduces police and Child Protective Services
investigative time
·
Enables quicker prosecutions through more
efficient case processing
·
Increases communication between agencies for
an improved understanding of their roles and case needs
Safe Harbor
serves as the central hub for the collaboration of all investigative efforts
of the Child
Protective Investigative Team (CPIT) into alleged incidents of
abuse or neglect law enforcement.
Investigators, working through a specially trained forensic child
interviewer, can develop a better understanding of events, obtain greater
detail and build a more solid case against the perpetrator(s), resulting in
higher conviction rates. This method
significantly reduces the number of times a child must relive this trauma for
investigative entities, thereby reducing the mental and emotional stress upon
them. Additionally, forensic medical
examinations can be done onsite by specially trained medical personnel to
determine the extent of abuse suffered by the child-victim. Following the investigative efforts, the
child-victim and non-offending family members will have follow-up counseling/therapy
coordinated through Safe Harbor
to provide the treatment needed to move forward with their lives.
There are over
500 Children's Advocacy Centers worldwide, 297 of which are connected via
membership with the National Children's Alliance, a
not-for-profit organization whose mission is to assist communities seeking to
improve their responses to child abuse by establishing and maintaining
Children's Advocacy Centers. Twenty-nine (29) such centers are currently in
operation in Tennessee and connected via membership with the Tennessee Chapter of
Children's Advocacy Centers. Both state
and national organizations maintain membership standards, which all centers
must meet and maintain.
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