Child Advocacy

Imagine that you are a child with a devastating secret: a secret so terrible that you are afraid to divulge the secret to your parents, your best friend, or your teacher. You are afraid that they will react with anger, sadness, or worst yet, blame. Now imagine that the very secret that you are carrying around spills out spontaneously during a conversation. You have to repeat the secret to ten or more strangers, verbatim, in detail. Excruciating detail. You wish you could reverse time and erase everything.

Victor Vieth, Director of the National Center for Prosecution of Child Abuse writes "no crime has a more sweeping, debilitating impact on its victims and on society than child abuse. The mutilation of a child's body and spirit is a pain that manifests itself throughout life." [as quoted in Through the Eyes of a Child: A Call for Equal Justice. The Guardian. Spring 2001.] Fortunately, in 1996, a small dedicated group of people in Calhoun County heard about a concept called a Child Advocacy Center - a child-friendly place that understood about the trauma of disclosure, the linguistic hurdles one may face when talking to a child, and the importance of working together as a team so that the number of interviews would be drastically reduced. So, armed with the knowledge that we could do better, our community began pooling its resources and set a goal: we would have a Child Advocacy Center of our own.

In the year 2000, our community reached its goal. The first interviews began in an informal setting, which was not without its drawbacks: a lack of adequate space and a rather rudimentary speaker system. But the team, comprised of law enforcement, the prosecutor's office, Child Protective Services, and a forensic interviewer, persevered through it all, because we knew we were working to help reduce the trauma to thechildren. In 2002, Clyde and Joanne Griffin, local business owners in Marshall, donated a portion of their PlayCare Learning Center to use as a Child Advocacy Center. We are still conducting business in that wonderful space today. In addition to the donated space, Sexual Assault Services of Calhoun County and Battle Creek Health System added the Child Advocacy Center to their programs officially, providing a coordinator, forensic interviewers, advocates and counselors.

Working with children who have been abused is a bittersweet experience. But the rewards, no matter how small, are worth every sleepless night. I think Khaled Hosseini, author of the book The Kite Runner sums it up best when he writes "It was only a smile, nothing more. It didn't make everything all right. It didn't make anything all right. Only a smile. A tiny thing. A leaf in the woods, shaking in the wake of a started bird's flight. But I'll take it. With open arms. Because when spring comes, it melts the snow one flake at a time, and maybe I just witnessed the first flake melting."

Thank you, Calhoun County, for helping to bring a little sunshine into a child's life.

Maria Markos Coordinator, Child Advocacy Center Sexual Assault Services of Calhoun County