Benton County Child Advocacy Center expands to deal with rise in child abuse cases

Benton County is one of the most family-friendly places to live in the country, with top-rated schools, first class museums and a booming economy. But for more than 790 children last year the friendliest thing was tucked away in the rural setting of Little Flock at the Benton County Child Advocacy Center.

Nationally, 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys will have been sexually abused by age 18 and in Benton County those statistics are lived out every week. The Children’s Advocacy Center, opened in 2000 by Beverly Engle, is bursting at the seams. Executive director Natalie Tibbs said Friday (Jan. 8) at the CAC’s sixth ground breaking in the past 15 years that a new 2,000-square-foot addition will give the center just under 10,000 square feet of space at it’s Little Flock facility.

The services have expanded at the Benton County nonprofit as child abuse cases – many times sexual in nature – continue to rise each year. Tibbs said the center opened 790 new child abuse cases in 2015, completed more than 2,500 counseling sessions with victims and families and also trained 5,000 people in community how to spot child abuse.

“Just in the first week of 2016, we have already seen 20 children,” Tibbs said.

Tibbs, a registered nurse, took over as executive director for the retiring Engle in August. She said the 2,000-foot expansion will provide for a much-needed larger waiting room for families as well as additional and more private counseling space. The Center will also have additional office space for its growing staff as well as a large meeting area.

The Center employs 12 full-time workers with two open positions — a child advocate and a development assistant. Tibbs said the center will also bring on four interns in the spring.

Nabholz Construction is doing the addition and crews said they will begin relocating utility lines on Monday (Jan. 11). The expansion is being underwritten and funded by the Farrell Foundation with help from Octagon, who works to bring the LPGA event to Northwest Arkansas each year.

Jay Allen, spokesman with event marketer Octagon, said even though there are limited dollars for non-profits within his organization, helping the Child Advocacy Center of Benton County is among the most important work it does because protecting children from abuse can help save a generation.

The Center offers advocacy support for each referred family, forensic interviews and medical examinations of the child victims, counseling services for the families and education for professionals in the community regarding child abuse training and awareness. All services are completely free of charge to the children’s families.

“Until the day we see an end in child in abuse we will continue to fight this war and meet the needs that are brought to our attention …,” Tibbs said.

CAC ORIGINS
Engle, a long-time child advocate and key instigator in the National Child Protection Training Center choosing Bentonville and NorthWest Arkansas Community College as its regional home, founded the CAC in 2000 out of need and concern she had for abused children in Benton County. She first founded Restoration Village in 1989, which is a local long-term shelter for battered women and abused children, and said in that work she saw the need for earlier intervention if victims were ever to have a chance to fully recover from their abuse.

“That’s why we have the CAC,” she said.

One attendee at Friday’s event was client of CAC in 2004 and now has a professional job and is leading a normal life.

“We have seen about 7,000 children since inception and many of those children are now adults living in this area. They came here, they told their story and someone believed them. There was a network of support around them which is crucial if they want to truly recover and get on with their bright futures,” Engle said.

Modestly Engle said she has no formal educational training for the work she’s been doing for the past 27 years.

“I am a mom. I have no degree appropriate for this work but I have a heart for mommas and babies and some great chocolate chip recipes,” Engle told Talk Business & Politics.

While she’s stepped away from day-to-day operations at the CAC, Engle said she’s still running Restoration Village.

“Right now we have 100 women on our waiting list. Today I met with a mom who has three teenage children and is a victim of domestic violence with no place to live,” she said.

IN REMEMBRANCE
Engle built in 2008 a memory garden on the CAC grounds for local children who die from child abuse. Since 2000, 13 children in Benton County have had their names placed in the garden, the last child added was 6-year-old Isaiah Torres of Bella Vista who died March 30, 2015, from rape and chronic child abuse at the hands of his biological parents.

“As adults we tell children that we will protect them, but so many times we don’t because we are unaware of the abuse. If we are ever going to eradicate child abuse we must educate the child and give them tools they need to speak up before it’s too late,” Engle said.

She said the families of the lost children often come to the memory garden to mourn and also celebrate those young lives lost to child abuse.