Hinton, W.Va. — On Feb. 4 the West Virginia Child Advocacy Network (WVCAN) released its Statewide Data for the 2020 fiscal year. The data reflects service from West Virginia’s 21 Child Advocacy Centers (CACs) which provided official service to 44 of 55 counties in the state. A CAC provides a safe, child-friendly facility where child protection, criminal justice, and child treatment professionals work together to investigate abuse, hold offenders accountable, and help children heal.
Between the additional stresses that families may be facing due to the pandemic — unemployment, schools closing, and illness — children have been at greater risk of abuse with fewer means to report it.
To ensure that every child had access to needed resources and support during this time, West Virginia’s 21 Child Advocacy Centers (CACs) remained open. CACs provided emergency support to survivors of child abuse and their non-offending caregivers, offered tele-mental health to help kids heal from their abuse, and conducted on-site and ramped-up remote family advocacy to connect kids and families to the resources they needed to survive and thrive.
During this past fiscal year, CACs served 4,404 children — a 34% increase in new children served in the last five years. Locally, the REACHH-Child Advocacy Center saw 30 new children during the pandemic. Although this number reflects a lower number served from 2019, we anticipate this will double in 2021.
2.1% of the children served by REACHH-CAC were under the age of six, 50% of children are reported or suspected to have a disability. Most of the children served by REACHH-CAC were there because of allegations of sexual abuse. 100% of alleged offenders were someone the child knows.
“Our Child Advocacy Center remained open during the pandemic and staff continued offering therapy and forensic interviews to children in Summers County. We were also busy linking families to needed services in the area. The CAC has maintained our multi-disciplinary approach to child abuse and prevention. The safety and well-being of children and families is our first priority”, says Felisha Hartwell, CAC director.
The report includes data on victim demographics, alleged offender demographics, reported vs. disclosed abuse, services performed, criminal justice response, and CAC income budget breakdown.
REACHH-Family Resource Center is guided by the belief that all children and their families deserve to be protected, supported, and provided with an opportunity to live lives free of violence and abuse and that services be family-centered. REACHH-Child Advocacy Center is located at 411 Temple Street, Hinton, WV 25951.
WVCAN provides statewide leadership in the fight against child abuse while working side-by-side with the 21 Child Advocacy Centers throughout the state. It provides training, technical assistance, leadership, legislative and policy advocacy, and overall coordination to Child Advocacy Centers around the state. Rather than having a child taken from agency to agency to endure multiple interviews, the CAC model coordinated the response around the child for an effective, child-centered, healing process. As the statewide authority on multidisciplinary approaches to supporting child victims of abuse, WVCAN’s purpose is to empower local communities to provide comprehensive, coordinated and compassionate services to victims of child abuse.
This document was prepared under a grant from the West Virginia Division of Administrative Services, Justice & Community Services Section. Points of view or opinions expressed in this document are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the State of West Virginia Division of Administrative Services, Justice & Community Services Section or any entity of the Department of Justice.
