Safe Harbor Child Advocacy Center

Dear Editor,

I wanted to take a moment to publicly thank the gracious sponsors of our recent meeting on July 14^th to establish a Children’s Advocacy Center here in Jefferson County and the rest of the 4^th Judicial District.  When our volunteers contacted the management of these fine local retailers and explained to them what we were doing, including how these centers facilitate the investigations and treatment of sexual and/or severe physical abuse cases of child victims, none of them hesitated to support this endeavor.

The recent sponsors for this crucial informational meeting about helping child abuse victims on July 14^th included:

·        Wal-Mart SuperCenter – Jefferson City

·        Ruritan Club – Dandridge

·        Kentucky Fried Chicken – Jefferson City

·        Subway – Dandridge

·        Food City – Jefferson City

·        Perkins – Dandridge

·        Subway – Jefferson City

·        Food Lion – Jefferson City

·        Pizza Plus – Dandridge

·        Save-A-Lot – Jefferson City

Businesses like these understand the importance in keeping the first thing first in the investigation and treatment of child sexual and physical abuse cases.  And, that ‘first thing’ is the child victim.  Thank you to all of these sponsors for underwriting our efforts on July 14^th.  The 4^th Judicial District Children’s Advocacy Center Taskforce looks forward to working with these and other fine area business people in the future to make this much needed advocacy center a reality to serve child victims, through specialized follow-up treatment and investigations for the prosecutions of perpetrators.

Persons interested in learning more about child advocacy centers in Tennessee can visit www.tncac.org and/or attend one of our future informational meetings in one of the counties of the 4^th Judicial District.  Our next informational meeting is July 26^th at the Sevier County Courthouse Annex in the 3^rd floor meeting room from 6:00-8:00pm.  Persons interested in attending are asked to contact Donna Koester at (865) 453-2638 or Crystal Ratcliff at (865) 429-7012.

With sincere thanks,

Barry Fain

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