By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
The Voices of Courage Advocacy Center wants to ensure children who disclose abuse are not further victimized by the very system designed to protect them.
Executive Director Melissa Birdsell says the services provided by Voices of Courage are critical, because often victims of crime cannot afford the services they need
“We provide free mental health treatment for children who have been through abuse, and to me that’s the big one, because it is the healing process that we can help them with,” Birdsell tells KFEQ News. “We can’t stop the abuse from happening, abuse has been happening since the beginning of time, we can try to deter it and we can try to prevent it, but we know it’s there, so our services are follow up but they need that follow up service in order to move forward and become productive members of society.”
Birdsell says children are referred the center, and get to meet the families whether or not charges are filed, or an investigation is opened
“We get to meet the family, offer our services and try to get them in and functioning with us right from the very beginning after the allegation is made,” Birdsell explains. “So, it’s really helpful for them to be able to know that there’s somebody there who’s going to kind of support the child, because parents have their own issues regarding what’s happened with their child, so it’s nice to know that there’s somebody there.”
Birdsell says the center provides several resources for victims who they assist
“So, we provide forensic interviews, we do mental health treatment, we provide full child and family advocacy, so follow up, helping them connect to services, all of those things,” Birdsell says. “We do prevention education as well, so we have someone on staff who goes out to the schools, churches, organizations. and provides those services again for free.”
Birdsell says another thing Voices of Courage does is a multi-team approach, working with law enforcement, medical services, prosecutors’ offices, and children’s division to provide a full wrap around service for families.
Voices of Courage provides services to families in Andrew, Atchison, Buchanan, Clinton, DeKalb, Gentry, Holt, Nodaway and Worth counties.
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