Children’s Advocacy Center gets new location, recognizes Child Abuse Prevention Month
The Children’s Advocacy Center of the Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit (CAC-LMJC) moved to new location in Fort Oglethorpe just in time to raise awareness about April being National Child Abuse Prevention Month.
The center, which specializes in the intervention and prevention of child abuse, moved March 8 to West Forrest Drive, from its old location behind Cornerstone Medical Center a few streets away, and held an open house on Thursday, April 13, to introduce people to its new facility.
“We’ve made it our own,” said CAC Executive Director Aleks Jagiella-Litts. “We have our therapy rooms, interview room, medical wroom, two therapists on staff, a real-time viewing room, and our board room. We also really want to become an education arm, so we want to start offering support groups and do more education, which is exciting.”
The new facility is the former headquarters of Joy Carpets, a company that did a lot in assisting CAC with its move.
“Joy Carpets did the buildout for us and they’ve been so great,” Jagiella-Litts said. “They have just gone above and beyond to take care of us, which has been really nice.”
CAC is a non-profit organization that is always looking for ways to prevent child abuse, break cycles of abuse within families, and raise funds to be able to support the local children in need.
“We’re always looking for funding,” Jagiella-Litts said. “We would love to get some new items. If anyone has old gift cards they might be willing to donate, that would be great because then we can take those even if they just have like $10 on it, and go to Dillard’s or somewhere and purchase a couple of little things to add. We would love to get new jackets and things like that. During the winter time, that’s something we’re always in need of so we can make sure kids have what the attire they need when it’s cold.”
To raise more awareness and further educate people, Jagiella-Litts says the center is planning a Child Abuse conference on Oct. 2 at the Dalton Convention Center.
“We’re partnering with Dalton to try to make it bigger with more exposure and more speakers,” she said. “We’re bringing in some experts on human trafficking and really trying to make a law enforcement track, a Department of Family and Children Services (DFACS) and social work track, and also a therapy track to get people some really good information. Unfortunately, these things aren’t going away, so we want try to educate as best we can.”
For more information about the upcoming conference or the CAC in general, visit them online at www.caclmjc.com, or call 706866-8811.