Vision: "Safe and Sound's vision is a community where children are safe and nurtured. To achieve our vision we are empowering children to tell, we are educating our community to recognize warning signs and we are listening when our children need us most."
The life she dreams of in survival mode disintegrates like a vapor.
The sound is familiar yet always startling. The sound of violence in her home. Her home is a home of neglect and abuse. A home where in a brief 6 years she's learned to care for her own needs as well as her siblings'. She cannot wait to get to school each day where, for a little while, the pressure is off and safety is hers to clutch to her chest. Eventually, as time goes along, a teacher discovers the atrocities that she has endured at home, and now in order to begin her journey to a better life, this sweet girl must jump through the horrible memories time and time again as she lends them into the hands of law enforcement, prosecutors, counselors and protective services.
As if the trauma of abuse is already not enough, now she repeats it to these complete strangers, ashamedly, although the shame should not be hers to hold. She wonders what information she should or should not reveal. She feels the guilt of possibly getting her mother in trouble. She wonders if the interviewers think she herself was the cause of all the problems, maybe if she behaved differently her parents would not get so mad. Her parents never liked the police, and now she needs to hand all her secrets over to an officer. Where is this all going now, what did she do wrong, what will happen to her next? She wonders if it is worth it. The fear was crippling at home, but it is what she knew. She had hiding places there, now she feels exposed. And her siblings, what has all this done to them? How does she speak up for them too, has she forgotten anything, for all the times she has told their story?
What if it all could have been prevented in the first place? What if someone showed her that law enforcement were her friends? What if someone told her it was OK to tell and just how to do it? What if she was given permission to have boundaries on her body and knew exactly who was safe to share her life with? What if the intervention did not have to be so frightening, daunting and traumatic? Wouldn't it be much less traumatic, even though it is still hard and scary, for her to revisit her story once or twice in a very effective way that could be accessible for the authorities involved?
This situation is hypothetical, and yet more common than our minds want to admit and one group in Midland County has it on their heart and in their mission to prevent and reduce this trauma as much as possible. Safe and Sound Child Advocacy Center indeed has such a process that helps greatly reduce the extended trauma that reporting and discussing abuse can add to a young person's already heavy shoulders. Managed by Executice Director, Michelle Waskevich, Safe and Sound's team is doing the difficult, yet necessary work of giving our county's kids the protection they deserve through prevention and intervention. Brittany Pochert, Forensic Interviewer, holds the responsibility of interviewing children and youth referred by law enforcement or Child Protective Services. Desirea Woodworth, Preventative Education Specialist, goes into our community informing children of their rights to their bodies and to empower them to tell when abuse occurs. Safe and Sound interviewed over 150 children in 2019 alone and these are just the cases reported, keeping in mind, when children are not empowered to tell, most abuse goes unreported.
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| Desirea Woodworth, Brittany Porchert and Michelle Waskevich Staff of Safe and Sound Child Advocacy Center |
After an abuse or neglect situation is reported, the young person and family that has endured so much, is brought into a warm, friendly, bright, clean, home-like center where they can be interviewed through nonthreatening techniques that often involve play and art. The interview, conducted by a well trained, child friendly forensic interviewer, can be recorded live and witnessed from a separate room for those involved in the investigation. This greatly reduces the intimidation and the amount of time the child or youth needs to go through the process of telling their story and in turn helps reduce the trauma of retelling.
Safe and Sound Child Advocacy Center was known for years as the Midland County Child Protection Council, and they have been a vital part of our community for 40 years. Their mission is critical to helping the children of Midland County live their very best lives. They treat each child with tremendous compassion and work professionally with each family they come in contact with, knowing the process usually effects the family as a whole. Abusers are most often someone the family is familiar with, the process of revealing and healing often involves more than one specific victim. Safe and Sound also specializes in preventative services. They provide car seat education, safe sleep training, dental programs and school based body safety programs that reach out to the community, as well as the Darkness to Light Stewards of Children Program for educators.
How can we as the community of Midland County help them to reach their potential as a non-profit?
Since Safe and Sound is a non-profit dealing with intense and confidential situations, there is limited availability to volunteer "in-house", but the community can help get the word out about what they do and help fund them. One of the most effective way to fund them perhaps is to participate in their wonderfully creative annual fundraiser the 7th Annual Art and Advocacy Auction.
In the spirit of art being used as a tool of help and healing, for its seventh year now, the Art and Advocacy event will bring a beautiful display of art from local artists. Artists such as Annie Stout of Paper Heart Design, Jazzmyn Benitez of Jazzmyn Benitez Art + Design, Amy Mudd of Picture Peddler Photography and many talented others. The night will feature heavy hor d'oeuvres, silent and live art auctioning, a live painting competition, DJ and photobooth opportunities along with a well known speaker from our community.
Safe and Sound Child Advocacy Center can be found on Facebook, Instagram at www.safeandsoundcac.org. They may also be reached at 989-835-9922.
In the days to come Let's Go Midland will be focusing on the promotion of this wonderful organization and their upcoming event! For more information please reach out to Safe and Sound today! Get your tickets soon! Enjoy a night of fun while empowering our community to protect our children. Come on.... Let's Go Midland!
Article By Hope Krotzer
Photos by Amy Mudd of Picture Peddler Photography,
and Joslyn Chulski, VP of Safe and Sound Board of Directors
