Easing the Trauma

Angie Strite, director of development for the Child Advocacy Center (left), and Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Clark Ritchie sit in the new forensic interviewing room at the Collins Center. The center recently received funding to purchase video equipment for recording interviews with children. In the foreground is a miniature courtroom to show kids what to expect when going to trial. Photo by Nikki Fox

HARRISONBURG – Often, children who’ve been the victims of sexual abuse are required to retell their story over and over again.

From the first report to a teacher, counselor or other trusted adult, to testifying in front of a jury, a child likely will have to give the details at least a half dozen times. Adding to the trauma is that, for the most part, the young victim must explain to strangers what happened.

But the Child Advocacy Center in Harrisonburg, a program of the Collins Center, is hoping that will change.

The center, located in the Wine Brothers building on South Main Street in downtown Harrisonburg, recently received a grant from the National Children’s Alliance to create a forensic interviewing room.

he room will have specialized video equipment that allows a group of professionals to observe from another room a dialogue between the child and a trained interviewer.

It will cut down on the number of times the children have to be interviewed,” said Angie Strite, director of development for the Child Advocacy Center. “The ultimate goal is to decrease the amount of trauma on the family.”

In fiscal 2009, the center served 49 children who were victims of a sexual assault.

With the creation of the interviewing room, a school counselor, an investigator, a child protective services worker, a sexual assault nurse-examiner, a prosecutor and a victim’s advocate will be able to watch unobserved, but have the opportunity to feed the interviewer questions to ask the child.

The room, which will have a few toys around and be painted in child-friendly colors, will cost from $10,000 to $20,000, depending on the type of equipment the center purchases.

Clark Ritchie, an assistant commonwealth’s attorney, is the lead prosecutor who deals with sexual assaults involving children. Ritchie also serves as the president of the Collins Center’s board of directors.

Ritchie said he supports anything that makes it easier for a child to get through the judicial process.

“This will, in a substantial way, improve our efforts to successfully prosecute cases, while minimizing the trauma to the child during the process,” said Ritchie, who added that the recordings could be used at trial in some cases.

Strite said she hopes to have the service, which will be available to law enforcement agencies in the Rockingham County area, up and running by the end of April.

Contact Pete DeLea at 574-6278 or pdelea@dnronline.com