Kristen Howell, CEO at the Children's Advocacy Center for North Texas, explains the Center's work/ mission like this: Amid seeing “the very worst things [happen to] the most vulnerable people,” comes a sense of hope that a robust and effective response does exist and the system really can work on behalf of victims. “It's remarkable,” Howell expresses. “I have the most gratitude for it. I've been in social services for 26 years and I've never seen a response as effective as this. It is truly the first-class, gold-standard response.”
The Children's Advocacy Center for North Texas facilitates the coming together of community volunteers and supporters, staff and multi-disciplinary team partners (MDTs) all on behalf of the protection of our kids. The acuity of cases worked through the Center is great. It not only takes more manpower, but more heart. Hope and gratitude envelop every part of the work. It has to, otherwise, it would surely fail.
The community volunteers and supporters work as external ambassadors for this incredible organization by serving at events, community fairs, in the Rainbow Room, with the Lotus League and as spokespeople in the community. While certain roles cannot be volunteer positions due to the sensitive nature of the work, this does not take away from the desire and need for community engagement at the Center. “Being a champion for the response and helping raise awareness, those are important things that take a tremendous amount of bandwidth from us,” says Howell. It allows the staff and MDTs to do what they do best in responding to a crime. Each piece of the puzzle is indispensable.
The organization and coordination present at the Center is remarkable. Certain crimes against children in Denton, Wise and Jack Counties must be coordinated at the Center. “The response is initiated out of this building,” says Howell. “It's coordinated. All the parties know to go here [and] every time this is what you do. The investigators get to talk to each other here [to] coordinate their case in the most effective victim-centered way possible.”
But how does such county-wide coordination happen across so many fields? “It starts with an agreement that every child deserves a trauma-informed, child-friendly response,” Howell explains. Her voice is firm and tense with passion as she explains the agreement made with their partners that is signed at the chief level and begins the work of protecting our kids. “We all agree on that value. There's tremendous power in that coordination.”
The coordination of all the MDTs spans 67 different agencies, including law enforcement and Department of Family and Protective Services investigators, district attorney's office prosecutors, medical providers and child advocacy staff. “It's a calling for most of our people here,” says Howell. And how could it not be?
“We [all] believe in doing everything we can to help a child. That's a culture that is very unique and is [of] the highest quality. We are surrounded by so many special, generous people.” This forging of such partnerships can't help but produce hope. Howell explains, “It makes me hopeful about the world in general and our ability to commit to the services that we need to commit to. That's really remarkable.”
And with hope comes a deep sense of appreciation for the hearts that support the Center-the hearts of the community, partners and staff, and us readers as we rally around them and choose to believe that goodness, hope and gratitude have remarkable power even in the darkest places.