When Healing Began: Sara's Story

"My name is Sara. I’m eight years old. I’m afraid of the dark. That’s when I hear my stepfather’s footsteps coming down the hall, toward my bedroom door. I pretend to be asleep, but he comes anyway, every night, while my mom’s away at work. I try hard to pretend I’m somewhere else, somewhere safe, where my stepfather can’t do what he is doing to me."

For children like Sara, it takes immense courage to find an adult to make things better. But once upon a time, a child victim was unknowingly re-victimized by the agencies and people who were supposedly trying to help.

Before CAC's, professionals from the child protection, investigative, legal and medical systems would interview the child separately and repeatedly in police stations and other environments designed for adults. Many times these interviews were done solely to meet the diverse and sometimes conflicting requirements of the agencies involved, rather than what was best for the child. Successful prosecution was difficult, and the victim often did not receive the support and services needed.

In the mid-1980s, a number of communities recognized these deficiencies and began coordinating programs to investigate, prosecute and treat abuse—programs that were child-focused and child-friendly.1 These were the very first Child Advocacy Centers (CACs).

Today, there are more than 700 CACs nationwide. There are 14 throughout Louisiana, including ours, which began in 1994 by a group of concerned citizens of the West St. Tammany Exchange Club, District Attorney Walter Reed and other community leaders. In 1998, our CAC was the major recipient of the Home Builder’s Association Raise The Roof For Charity campaign. Those proceeds built Hope House. Since our inception, we have interviewed more than 2,500 children and young teenagers, and have dramatically increased the prosecution rate of child abuse cases.

1 Southern Regional Childrens Advocacy Center, 1996