Children's Advocacy Center expanding services for young victims in Portage County

When Cindy Brew took over as the leader of the Children's Advocacy Center of Portage County in October 2020, the world was in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Four years later, the CAC has doubled in size − in staffing, funding and office space.

"We've done a lot of growing, which is exciting," said Brew.

Since its beginning in 1998, CAC has been helping children and families deal with the traumatic consequences of child sexual abuse.

Brew, herself a survivor, has worked in victim services for about 20 years. She arrived at CAC after serving as director of the Rape Crisis Center of Medina and Summit Counties, where she also oversaw an expansion.

"Cindy has been a just a great director in managing and expanding the services [at CAC]," said Portage County Prosecutor Victor Vigluicci, who is president of the CAC's Board of Trustees.

Increasing services

"When I started in 2020, we were only providing advocacy, forensic interview and medical forensic medical services at that time and only to child victims of sexual abuse," said Brew. "We expanded our services to include child witness to violence, child human trafficking, child sexual abuse material (pornography), and child physical abuse."

Services at CAC are free, including therapy for victims that began in 2023.

"The big importance of therapy is that most of our clients have severe trauma that's going to affect them forever, and so the sooner you can get them into therapy, the better outcomes for them in their future, which when it comes down to it, means less cost," said Brew.

As a part of this expansion, CAC launched a human trafficking coalition with representatives from various interested agencies around the county.

"I have never been a part of such a well-attended coalition," said Brew. "We have about 40 regular members from all different disciplines. You know, children's services, juvenile detention. We've had prosecution, law enforcement, all the advocacy services in Portage County."

She said coalition members meet quarterly and are setting up protocols to provide operational consistency.

"We've just been sort of establishing who do you call, who does what, those types of things, so no one's duplicating services in the county," said Brew.

Different types of services offered

Brew said children are abused in a number of ways. It might involve parents trafficking children for drugs, with the children coerced into engaging in sexual activity, or children enticed by someone to meet with them via social media, perhaps with a promise of drugs. Children who run away are also at risk of being picked up by traffickers.

The CAC now does trafficking risk assessments for every child who enters a program.

Other risks include runaways; children lacking lacks basic needs, such as food; drug use.

"We do an evidence-based risk assessment on all the children that receive services at our center," said Brew "And if a child is found at risk of human trafficking, or at high risk, then we provide additional follow up services for them to hopefully minimize or even eliminate that risk."

Brew said the CAC is increasing its community outreach as a part of its prevention efforts.

Expanded services require expanded resources

When Brew was hired, the CAC had four full-time employees, plus three part-time nurses who worked a combined total of 15 hours per week. It now has nine full-time employees with plans to hire two more.

"So we've added staff as a result of Cindy's obtaining additional funding, and the center's doing well," said Vigluicci.

The additions include two therapists, with one specializing in human trafficking. Staff also includes three victim advocates, a full-time nurse, and three prevention, programming, education and outreach staff members.

Brew said CAC typically provides services to about 110 children annually. Currently, it is serving 98 families with176 children and non-offending caregivers. It also provides training to about 350 community members per year.

"When we look at the numbers, we're seeing less than 10% of the child victims in our county, so outreach is really important," said Brew.

CAC has just about doubled its office space at University Hospitals Portage Medical Center. Fortunately, it was at no cost.

"With this expansion, we needed a lot more room, and University Hospitals wonderfully donated additional space to us," said Brew. "They donated office space for six more people and a conference room. So that's amazing."

Brew said CAC's budget has more than doubled in four years, to $770,000 this year. The bulk of the funding comes through grants.

"She's just done a wonderful job of obtaining funding," said Vigluicci. "Both grant and foundational funding to allow us to expand services to children."

Brew said $200,000 has come in from the Ohio Office of Criminal Justice Services' Anti-Human Trafficking Fund, and it has received $75,000 two years in a row from the National Children's Alliance for combatting child pornography and child trafficking.

Brew said the Portage County CAC is the only agency in Ohio to receive the latter grant.

"So that's quite an honor for us in Portage County," she said.

The National Children's Alliance, which has awarded its accreditation to CAC, also has provided $50,000 annually for "core services" for three years in a row, and $20,000 annually for "expanding access" for two years in a row.

Bowling fundraiser set April 27

The CAC has set its 25th annual Bowl Against Abuse fundraiser for April 27, during Child Abuse Prevention Month, at Kent Lanes, 1524 S. Water St.

The bowling event will have two sessions, starting at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. Organizations and community members can form teams of up to six to register for $25, which pays for bowling and shoes.

"It's just a wonderful time to hang out and have fun and do some good against child abuse," said Brew. Register at https://tinyurl.com/yuea6hc7.

Brew said the event has raised about $30,000 annually over the last few years.

Other funding needs

Because grant funding often can't be used for items other than their specific target, community members are always welcome to help out.

"Transportation is a real issue," said Brew. "We can't buy gas cards or pay for an Uber for someone to get to therapy out of grant funding, but we can out of these kinds of donations."

Go to https://childadvocacyportage.org for more information about the Children’s Advocacy Center of Portage County. The CAC can also be reached at 330-297-8838. To report child, or elder, abuse, call the Portage County Department of Job and Family Services 24/7 hotline at 330-296-2273 (CARE).

Reporter Jeff Saunders can be reached at jsaunders@recordpub.com.

This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: Children's Advocacy Center expanding services for Portage County kids