In honour of National Child Day, the federal government has committed $750,000 over five years to PACE, Community Support Sexual Assault, and Trauma Centre for their Child Advocacy Centre in Grande Prairie.
PACE CEO Jacquie Aitken says the funding boost is significant, as the organization is in need of multiple staff positions to ensure services and support are available for clients.
“We really have the need for three to four staff positions, and last year we completed 283 forensic interviews,” she says. “In order to run an organization like that, we need a coordinator, we need frontline staff, and the frontline staff do crisis intervention, and they take care of the families through the court system.”
The Caribou Centre offers multiple support systems for child and youth victims of abuse and their families through the entire judicial process from as soon as charges are laid all the way through the trial process. Program Coordinator of the Caribou Centre Nicole Bockus says the entire process can be quite lengthy, and the funding will serve to support the hundreds of ongoing cases that go through the centre.
“The court system is such that it may take two or three years for the child to go through the entire process,” she says. “At any one time, we could be carrying probably 100 to 150 ongoing files, so we’re providing a lot of services to families throughout the year,”
Some of the supports provided by the Caribou Centre include stress management techniques for victims and their families, remote testimony options, and even a support dog for children and youth to utilize should they testify in person.
“If it does move to a trial we provide court preparations, so preparing children and youth for what they can expect when they go to testify, and we also provide court accompaniments, so we’ll go with them on the day of for them to testify before the judge.”
“We also have a facility dog, Archer, he is a yellow lab that supports children and youth when they have to either give a forensic interview or attend court so he’s there to emotionally support them through this.”
According to Bockus, children and youth now have the option to testify remotely, as disclosure of abuse in front of their families can be “very upsetting” and the remote option gives young people the opportunity to be truthful and safe in a familiar setting.
“The best part about that is that the child or youth does not have to fear that they’re going to walk into the courthouse and come face to face with the accused.”
“We really want to give the message that there’s something bad that happened to the child and we need to get them through it with as much dignity as possible for both the family and the child, and they can get through it.”
Additionally, Bockus says a portion of the federal funding will go to help the Caribou Centre’s provincial network to ensure all Albertans who are affected by child abuse have access to support.
