Jessica Stevens
Staff Writer
“When you intervene in the life of a child, you’re changing a lifetime and all of the lives that are around them for that lifetime,” said Susan Hutchinson, Arkansas’ First Lady. “There’s a quote from President Kennedy that goes something like this, ‘When you’re impacting a child, you’re sending a message into the future. A future that you most likely won’t see.”
Hutchinson spoke passionately about the importance of child advocacy to a large crowd Thursday at the South Arkansas Administrative Professionals May meeting in St. Mary’s Parish Hall.
She has chosen to dedicate a large part of her time as First Lady of Arkansas to the promotion, operation, and expansion of Children’s Advocacy Centers, a non-profit 501(c)(3) benefiting children and teenagers who are the victims of sexual abuse.
“We’re a bunch of do-gooders who cry a lot, but we’re trained,” she said. “We want to make sure that things happen for these children so we are there — we are the interveners.”
The Children’s Advocacy Centers are staffed with individuals trained to interact and comfort child victims throughout the entire process of healing and justice.
“Our people are trained to do forensic interviews to avoid putting these young children in situations of being in the interview room of a police department, a car with a Department of Human Services officer, or counselors office at school while talking about these terribly personal things,” Hutchinson said. She continued to say that all services provided through CAC are free of charge.
“These kids meet with a nice person who is trained in ‘child talk.’ Interviews through the centers are recorded and given out to the legal team and law enforcement in order to spare the child from reliving the experience while repeatedly telling the story to various agencies," she said.
"They work to connect with law enforcement, the Department of Human Services, the Department of Child Services, as well as the prosecuting attorneys office to confidently discuss the situation all while reducing the child’s exposure to the traumatic events of the past."
The CAC also offers any necessary medical examinations needed by specifically trained nurse examiners for sexual assault victims.
“We even go a step further,” said Hutchinson. “These children often have a lot on their hearts and minds. They’ve been manipulated, maybe for a long time.”
“It’s almost always that the bad person is somebody they know, someone in the home or that has access to the home, just in their lives like a next of kin, church member, scouting group, music group, or someone in the neighborhood. This makes it all the more upsetting for the child.” For this, Hutchinson said that the centers offer long-term highly professional targeted counseling.
“It’s trauma-focused cognitive therapy,” she said. “It’s very necessary and is part of the healing process.” This therapy helps the child to start the healing process but also prevents or reduces the risk of them being manipulated later in life as adults. Hutchinson said “Whether it’s physical or sexual abuse, the brain has been trained not to respond the way you and I normally would. They become compliant.”
“We intervene in these kids lives so that they can reclaim their innocence and recapture the person they were meant to be,” said Hutchinson with tears in her eyes. “So that they can blossom and they can grow to become the person that God Almighty meant for them to be all along.”
Hutchinson introduced Stacy Thompson, a certified public accountant and the executive director of the Children’s Advocacy Centers. She began with saying that there are currently 14 centers operating in the state with the 15th opening soon in El Dorado. “We are truly dedicated to finding the unique needs of each victim of child abuse,” said Thompson. “It will be operating from a CASA program in the 13th South Judicial District.” Thompson offered the crowd heart-breaking statistics on child sexual abuse cases.
“The Children’s Advocacy Centers served more than 4,800 children in 2015 with some form of our service,” she said. ” We live in a time where one in four girls will be sexually abused before reaching her 18th birthday and one in six boys will be sexually abused before his 18th birthday, and those are just the ones that are reported.” She continued-
“Child sexual abuse is a family’s best kept secret and often a child’s best kept secret. As Mrs. Hutchinson said, 90 percent of the time when a child is violated, it’s by someone they know, trust, or love. Someone who was put into that child’s life to care for them.”
Executive director of 13th South CASA, Robin Krneta, was introduced as the director of the El Dorado Children’s Advocacy Center. “It’s been a whirlwind,” said Krneta. “Things have been moving along very quickly. We have secured a building on East Main Street.” She continued to say that they are currently waiting on a quote for remodeling work and searching for staff. “My goal is by the end of the summer, first of fall, to have the doors open,” she said.
Hutchinson closed with a tearful plea advocating the importance advocating the centers services throughout communities in the state in order to provide much-needed help and resources to children going through abuse.
“How sad would it be if these children didn’t know we were there for them,” Hutchinson pleaded through the tears. “It’s sad enough just knowing that children need us and I wish they didn’t. I wish they didn’t need us but they do.” She continued-
“They need to know hope is on the way- that there are ministering angels out there for them, answering their prayers.”
Jessica Stevens can be contacted at 870-862-6611 or by email at [email protected].