Local Child Advocacy Center needs $425,000 toward goal, officials say

The Child Advocacy Center of Sedgwick County, which serves abused children, needs to raise $425,000 by Dec. 15 to keep making progress toward its goal of helping vulnerable victims under one roof, officials said Thursday.

District Attorney Marc Bennett and CAC executive director Diana Schunn gave an update on ongoing efforts to move existing CAC offices to a refurbished facility in a former school. The goal is to open a new facility by early 2016 that will finally put all the needed child-abuse-and-neglect services in one place.

Bennett, who serves on the CAC board, termed the update as a way to put the project in the public eye again. He devoted most of his weekly briefing for media on Thursday to discussing the needs of the CAC project.

Schunn spoke about why the CAC project matters: Last year, the CAC served 1,839 children. Seventy percent of them are under age 12. Many are so young they can’t verbalize what happened to them, so extra witnesses are sometimes needed.

Sexual abuse continues to account for the largest percentage of victims – 68 percent. The rest suffer from physical abuse, neglect, drug endangerment, human trafficking or from witnessing crimes, she said.

The $425,000 must be raised by Dec. 15 to meet a $500,000 challenge grant. Fundraising efforts have already raised a little over $3.77 million, which is more than half of the overall goal of $6.5 million, she said.

People interested in contributing can contact Schunn at 316-660-9494.

The CAC is now housed in the basement of the State Office Building downtown, which means child victims have to go to the same place – and use the same bank of elevators – where their offenders go to be interviewed by investigators.

The new facility will be in the former Lincoln Elementary School just south of downtown, and there victims and offenders will have separate entrances, so victims won’t have to see the same people who might have hurt them, Schunn said.

The new location will allow for all of the children’s needs – including medical care, counseling and investigation – to be handled in one place.

Schunn noted that a Heroes Gala will be held at the Scottish Rite Center on Nov. 1 as part of the general fundraising effort.

This story was originally published September 25, 2014 at 3:42 PM with the headline "Local Child Advocacy Center needs $425,000 toward goal, officials say."