Child advocacy center closes

Northwest Child Advocacy Center Director Jackie Cochenour and Sheriff Randy Strong met with the County Commission to review the wrap-up of the one-year services of the center earlier this fall.

Cochenour and Strong discussed with the commission the three grants which Cochenour had applied for that were denied. So the center was forced to close. Cochenour reviewed where she is at in the final submission process for much of the state department of public safety funds that will come back to Nodaway County. The binder detailing these grants and other monies were turned in to Nodaway County Treasurer Collector Marilyn Jenkins to put receipt documentation together with claim paperwork and then turned over to the county clerk to store. Unused local funds which were donated to the center were also returned or the monies went to new recipients per the request of the donating group.

The lack of grant money forced the center to close. The center had served the county’s children, some who may have been in abusive settings.

“It was a complete surprise to us,” said Strong. “We had really no awareness that these grants were in jeopardy of not being received.”

Description of grants

The three grants, and the objectives for each, that were submitted follows. All grants were written with the focus of continuing the operations of what the task force had established and expanding impact and services locally. The reasons for not being awarded have not yet been provided. It is expected the county will not know until the first quarter of 2023. All were a peer-review process.

1. Office of Violence Against Women (OVW): Rural Domestic Violence, Dating Violence, Sexual Assault, and Stalking Program, with objectives to establish a multi-disciplinary team and a coordinated community response group in the county, as well as train five percent of the adult population in child abuse prevention and have a response focusing first on those working and engaging with children and youth. The grant would develop and annually facilitate developmentally and age-appropriate trauma-informed child abuse prevention trainings in service area schools for sixth through 12th grades. Another objective was to secure and provide mental health therapy and crisis counseling sessions to survivors and their families and provide victim advocacy solely focused on children and their families.

2. OVW: Prevent and Respond to Domestic Violence, Dating Violence, Sexual Assault, Stalking, and Sex Trafficking Against Children and Youth Program with many of the objectives to be similar to the first grant however this narrative narrowed the scope to solely focus on youth.

3. Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) FY 22 Preventing School Violence: BJA’s STOP School Violence Program had as its primary goals to implement trainings for all behavioral threat assessment and intervention teams, provide resources and trauma-informed strategies for responding to students in mental health crisis and improve access to school-based behavioral health services, create and launch an online resource site with connection to an anonymous reporting system, school and community prevention resources, and parent and community education, implement specialized community, family, school personnel, youth-serving organizations, and law enforcement trainings and to hire project personnel and contract with local professionals to assist in improving positive school climates and response to student behavior.

The center was working to achieve an accreditation status that may have given the center more credence.

“Accreditation is done through the National Children’s Alliance and requires more than a few months to accomplish,” said Cochenour. “We worked diligently to posture ourselves in meeting the needs of accreditation moving forward. As a county, we have the people, spaces and strong agency relationships to be able to do so.”

Serving children

During a short time in the first year of the center the number of children served included 23 children, with an average age of 12, plus an adult were serviced by the staff for forensic interviews with partnering agencies and investigative teams such as law enforcement, prosecuting attorneys, victim advocates and the juvenile office. This was less than half of the disclosures received during the period as the center could only serve children not tied to a state’s Children’s Division investigation. Over 2,000 kindergarten through 12th grade students were provided age and developmentally appropriate child sexual abuse prevention trainings uniquely developed for each grade level.

“Through this work, there were numerous disclosures from children who gained more confidence, knowledge and empowerment to ask for help by their trusted adults,” said Cochenour. “Staff who supported the children in the disclosure phase, said to the team that these disclosures would have never come to the surface in such a timely manner if this prevention was not provided.”

She continued by noting the center not only serviced the local five-county region, but also fulfilled the needs of school districts in DeKalb, Clinton, Buchanan and Platte counties.

Besides children, over 100 school district staff and teachers were provided necessary mandated reporter training to respond appropriately to the increased disclosures

100 adults were trained as stewards of children and now know the five steps to protecting children from child sexual abuse. The center’s staff organized a new model of servicing adults in the area who have been sexually abused and assisted the sheriff’s office in a trauma-informed forensic interviewing process that provided the survivor a full range of services focused on their rights as a survivor while working directly with North Star Advocacy Center, Maryville. North Star Advocacy Center is open to serve.

Closing this chapter

In speaking with Cochenour about the loss of funding, she said, “I know the county commissioners and elected officials are committed to our children and families and if a funding opportunity is available that meets the needs of the county they will do everything in their ability to secure the funding.”

Her final thoughts, “For me personally, I want to hear the sound of happy, healthy and safe childhoods in our region even more than what we have today. Child abuse, childhood trauma, and adverse childhood experiences thrive in silence, in the silence of secrecy, fear and shame. It mutes a child’s voice and is the silent pandemic that has the most serious array of consequences. The adversity faced in childhood impacts the health, success and vitality we experience in adulthood which in turn impacts our communities in a generational cycle. To minimize many of our health concerns today, including mental illness, heart disease, obesity and addictions to name a few, we must go to the root cause and prevent the trauma from ever occurring. For our rural communities to thrive, and not just survive, we must do more to prevent and react responsibly as adults, so that the decibel level of happy childhoods is heard even more.

“I am blessed to have had the opportunity to work alongside so many wonderful agencies, school officials, and community leaders this past year as we launched the task force and the advocacy center in Nodaway County. What we accomplished in less than a 12-month time frame is a God-given miracle. Now the county is positioned in a way to continue strengthening these relationships and services moving forward.

“As a resident in this county, I am committed to our children. Prevention is the cornerstone to building resilient communities and I have committed to our county commissioners that I will continue prevention efforts at the school district level and through adult and community prevention programming. What we have developed for prevention is special and unique to our area. I will do everything in my ability to strengthen what has already been offered as we move forward. I am excited to observe and experience what more we can accomplish as a region who focuses on our children first.”