Susie’s Place Child Advocacy Centers is a non-profit agency that assists with investigating child abuse and neglect, as well as promoting healing for kids and their families. We do this at three centers by providing:
- forensic interviews,
- forensic medical exams,
- referrals for counseling,
- connections to local resources for support,
- a welcoming waiting area,
- volunteer comfort dog and handler teams,
- supply closets with clothing and toiletries,
- prevention programs for adults,
- school body safety training for kids,
- and more
We offer follow-up conversations and assistance to families for as long as they wish, long past the conclusion of the actual investigation. We meet regularly with team members from prosecution, law enforcement, department of child services, medical, and mental health to facilitate important conversations about criminal cases that arise from investigations and about the well-being of the children and families who visit our centers.
We rely on our entire communities for financial support. Larger and smaller grants alone do not nearly cover our budget. That’s easy math. When we reach out for donations or matching monies, it’s because we need those funds, we need your tax-deductible donations, we need our communities to care in big ways.
We pay rent and utilities for 3 centers, salaries of a growing number of staff as our services expand, renovation of new space to accommodate growing demand, for gas cards to help families who drive from longer distances, and so much more.
When we ask for support, we use big numbers—in 2022, we interviewed over 1,400 children from 42 counties, a huge number of interviews, advocacy conversations, medicals, counseling sessions, and dog snuggles.
Small numbers matter too because each of those 1,410 children is one child—a child who is 3 or 9 or 17, a child who loves to draw or dance or play video games or kick a soccer ball, a child with long braids or a buzz cut or purple hair, a child who comes to us confused or anxious or shy or withdrawn, a child who someone has hurt, a child who matters to all of us because how we care for our most vulnerable speaks loudly about our values as a society and as individuals. That is where your donation goes, one child at a time.