New centre allows abused kids to tell story just once
Under current system, youngsters might have to relive trauma 10 times
An new child/youth advocacy centre is a space where the 700 local children who report abuse each year can tell a team of professionals what happened — once.
Up to now, a child who comes forward to a teacher about being abused told the same story time and again at multiple locations, to Children’s Aid workers, police investigators, lawyers, counsellors, nurses and doctors. “By the end, they could have spoken to 10 professionals at various locations,” Michelle Oake, executive director of the Windsor Essex Child/Youth Advocacy Centre, said during the centre’s official launch Wednesday.
She said retelling the story can further traumatize and re-victimize child victims of sexual or physical abuse, causing emotional, mental and physical damage.
“Here, she will only have to tell her story once,” to police, CAS and medical staff, said Oake. The centre had been running as a pilot project since 2017 out of Windsor Regional Hospital, and now has a permanent home at St. Clair College’s Anthony P. Toldo Centre for Applied Health Sciences. “We are now located in a childfriendly, safe, neutral environment. As we send that message out there, more and more children will come forward with their (reports of ) abuse,” she said.
The new centre’s partners include local police forces, the CAS, Windsor Regional Hospital and the Sexual Assault Crisis Centre. To have a single location where all the professionals can work as a team on a child’s case is “fantastic,” Windsor Police Chief Al Frederick said.
Ninety-three per cent of childabuse cases involve an abuser who is known to the victim, usually a family member, which means reporting the abuse is extremely difficult for a child, he said.
“So a committed effort to get these children the help they need is critical in bringing that allegation forward and it’s critical in providing the supports needed to end the abuse.” Unfortunately, Windsor police will be one of the heaviest users of the centre — recent stats show that 68 per cent of abuse cases come from Windsor. Seven hundred cases a year in Windsor-Essex (and that’s just the reported cases) is an unacceptable number, Frederick said.
“We want to eliminate child abuse, and this (centre) is going to go a long way in that direction.” The centre features interview rooms designed to be less threatening for a child. Video cameras are mounted in the ceiling. They’ll be pointed out to the child at the start of the interview by professionals explaining how the interview will go. Making sure the interview is done right and professionally every time reduces the chance it can be challenged in court, said Randy Semeniuk, an assistant Crown attorney for 30 years who specialized in child abuse cases before retiring. He’s chairs the community studies program at the college.
“The chances of guilty pleas will increase as well as the findings of guilt ultimately at trial,” he said. “So the benefit (of the centre) is tremendous. I wish they had this when I was doing all those prosecutions.”
Statistics from the pilot project’s annual report show that 78 per cent of reported abuses were for alleged sexual abuse, 18 per cent were alleged physical abuse and four per cent were for human trafficking. Seventy-eight per cent of the victims were female. Thirty-three per cent of alleged abuses involved a parent, six per cent involved a step-parent, 10 per cent involved a sibling, 10 per cent involved a parent’s or guardian’s partner, and 19 per cent involved an acquaintance. Only 10 per cent involved a person who was unknown to the victim. The centre was established with financial help from the federal Department of Justice and St. Clair College providing the space. But it will take local fundraising to pay for its $275,000 annual budget and to build an additional interview room and two family waiting areas.
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Essex County OPP Insp. Glenn Miller, said child/youth advocacy centres operate in 20 countries and the U.S. has more than 800. The Windsor Essex Centre is the sixth in Ontario. In addition to investigations and forensic interviews with victims, it provides advocacy and support, medical evaluations and treatment, mental health services and community education including prevention work.
“We anticipate that through awareness more children, more youth will come forward with disclosures as they have confidence in our ability to do this job,” he said.