THE ASPIRE BLOG

“There was a need 10 years ago, and there is still a need today.” Kids Talk Director Denise Valdez is talking about the need for a Child Advocacy Center (CAC) in Madison County, Indiana. A decade ago, Madison County had the third highest rate of substantiated abuse or neglect in the state of Indiana — and today, it’s the second highest.

“Because the numbers of reported child abuse were — and still are — so high in Madison County, a lot of local leaders and organizations started discussing the need for a CAC,” Valdez says. 

According to the Indiana Chapter of the National Children’s Alliance, tragic events when children are abused, assaulted or neglected can be made worse by the experience children have when proceeding through the court system. That is the purpose of CACs, which provide forensic interviews in a child-friendly environment to discuss what did or did not happen to them as well as victim advocacy and family-focused healing.

Juvenile Judge Steve Koester — who was chief deputy prosecutor in Madison County at the time — along with Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) went to Aspire in January 2014 to ask if the organization would consider operating the CAC under its umbrella.

“Madison County didn’t have the necessary resources to sustain a nonprofit,” Valdez says. “So the task force was looking for an organization with infrastructure and resources; they needed a firm foundation. And Aspire was that firm foundation.”

Valdez was hired in May 2014, and Kids Talk opened its doors in August of that same year. 

The Kids Talk Early Years

“When Kids Talk first opened, it was just me,” Valdez says. “My early goals included establishing a very strong multidisciplinary team with our local teams. We had a lot of meetings with law enforcement, child protective services (CPS) and the prosecutor’s office to talk about how the CAC would operate and come to an agreement on the protocol and how we would operate together.”

For a CAC to do well, all agencies involved need to understand how referrals come in, what the process is for those referrals, how interviews are conducted and how communications go out to the other agencies. Kids Talk is based on the CAC model. At its core, the model is about teamwork and bringing agency professionals involved in a case together on the front end of the case. It’s about putting the needs of the victim or child first.

“In these situations with child abuse, it’s a perfect storm for having a lot of conflict,” Valdez says. “All the agencies involved have to respect each other’s roles and have an agreement on how we are going to work successfully together. It was a priority for me to establish that early on, and we still have that working relationship today. With the commitment from law enforcement, CPS and the prosecutor’s office, it made it a lot easier for all of us.”

Valdez also started to research funding opportunities in order to hire more staff. Since her start at Kids Talk, the staff has increased from one to six team members and is now a nationally accredited CAC. The team has also done more than 5,200 forensic interviews in the last 10 years.

“Our core service is doing forensic interviews,” Valdez says. “Like adults, our vulnerable child victims experience shame, fear, guilt and embarrassment and can be reluctant to participate in the investigative process. Getting children to overcome their fear and shame to trust an adult enough and share their experience can be difficult. But talking about it is the first step to providing safety and healing.”

Letting Children Tell Their Story

“When a child comes into Kids Talk, we are there to listen,” Valdez says. “We just let them tell their story. Many children don’t actually disclose any abuse — either because there was a misunderstanding in what someone saw or heard or because the child isn’t ready to talk about it. That’s why it’s all a process. Law enforcement gets the basic facts, but the forensic interview is to make sure the children don’t have to tell the in-depth narrative over and over to different people.”

A forensic interview is an information-gathering conversation where possible incidents of abuse or neglect or witnessing a violent crime are explored.

“The child is in control of the conversation,” Valdez says. “If the child is showing any signs of distress, we stop talking about it. We ask non-leading questions; it’s our job to listen to what they have to say, and then if they disclose something happened, we listen for additional details.”

There are four stages of the forensic interview:

1. Rapport Building – Assessing how the interviewer and child communicate and how well the child recalls details of things that have happened in the past.

2. Transition to Topic of Concern – Asking questions like, “Do you know why you were brought here to talk to me today?” “Did anyone tell you why you are here? Tell me what they said.” There is also a discussion about body education and safety.

3. Exploring Details – Asking questions, letting the child tell their whole narrative and exploring all the details. 

4. Closure – Asking if the child has any questions for the interviewer and then returning them to a normal state by asking questions about their day and what they are going to do later.

While the forensic interviewer is with the child, another Kids Talk advocate is talking with the child’s non-offending caregiver.

“There is a lot going on during the forensic interview — both with the child and their caregiver,” Valdez says. “We ask the caregiver questions about what services are needed, how the child has been behaving and also educate them about available resources for when they leave Kids Talk. We try to protect the child as much as possible.”

Kids Talk ensures victims and parents or caregivers are guided toward programs that will facilitate the healing process for the child and family — and all Kids Talk services are provided at no cost to those served.

Reaching Out to Prevent Abuse

In addition to providing a safe and welcoming place for children to tell their story and be heard, Kids Talk also offers a prevention program for students K-12 in Madison County that educates them on body safety and digital media safety. These prevention programs provide an opportunity for children to confidentially disclose information about neglect and abuse.

“We present to more than nine thousand students throughout the year, starting with basic body safety rules for the younger children, and then for the older students, we talk about online safety, how to protect yourself and your identity and also the effects of sexting and child pornography.”

Body Boundaries is focused on grades K through 5, and Staying Safe in a Digital World is for students in grades 6 through 12. The Kids Talk prevention programs are customized according to the cognitive abilities of children of all ages and are based on criteria determined by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and by Gundersen National Child Protection Training Center. Kids Talk also provides training for teachers and school faculty to help them identify signs of abuse, how to report and the overall child welfare process.

“Providing kids with basic information about body safety and child abuse helps them better identify when something may be happening to them or someone they know,” says Kids Talk Child Abuse Prevention Coordinator Julie Coon. “Child abuse is still sort of a taboo topic among a lot of adults. The more we talk about it, the more comfortable and ‘normal’ it is for kids to talk about. As a society, we teach kids about fire safety, tornado drills and to wear their seatbelts. It’s beyond time for body safety to be upfront. Education gives the child the power and permission to speak up and get help.”