The state budget recently signed by Governor Glenn Youngkin includes funding for child advocacy centers.
“I’m always worried that funding’s gonna get cut from those programs,” said Randy Bonds, captain of support services at the Christiansburg Police Department. He and his team investigate dozens of cases of suspected child abuse every year and rely on CAC’s to help interview children.
“All of our training is basically geared toward interviewing a suspect,” Bonds explained. “And it’s a complete different mindset to interview a 5-year-old child, as you can imagine.”
Bonds said without these services, his department would still investigate child abuse cases, but they wouldn’t be as effective. He says the experience would also be more scary and traumatic to victims. CAC interviewers are trained to interact with children in a way that’s developmentally appropriate.
“They’re letting the child tell their story, and not leading them in a direction,” said Bonds.
At CACs, police, prosecuting attorneys and other specialists often view these interviews through a screen, while a trained professional is the one interacting with the child.
In their budget passed earlier this month, state lawmakers included more than five million dollars to CAC’s over the next two years. This money was critical to helping centers remain open, said Janice Dinkins-Davidson.
“It doesn’t give us extra,” Dinkins-Davidson said. “It doesn’t give us what we need. It brings us back to baseline so we can continue to function.”
That’s because federal funding from the Victims of Crime Act is decreasing.
Dinkins-Davidson, who is the executive director of Children's Advocacy Centers of Virginia, said the state funding will keep most centers open, but services that help child abuse victims in rural areas may still face cuts in the coming years.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
