The Children's Interview Center

Did you know?

One in four girls and one in six boys will be sexually assaulted by the age of eighteen.

"Thank you so very much for all the support you have shown my two girls during this difficult time in their lives." . . . Mother of 6 and 8-year-old girls.

A Safe Place For Kids

The Children's Interview Center of Contra Costa, a program of Community Violence Solutions, provides a variety of specialized services to children who have been sexually abused and their non-offending family members. Services provided include child forensic interviews, non-acute medical examinations, advocacy services, and parent education. The primary goals of the Children's Interview Center (CIC) are to:

• provide a safe, child-friendly place where children who allege sexual abuse can have a standardized forensic interview
• improve the collection of evidence
• reduce the trauma experienced by the child by decreasing the need for multiple interviews by various agencies.

The Team
The Team at the CIC is comprised of a social worker, police detective, deputy district attorney, and a child victim advocate. Team members participate in an interview by observing through a one-way mirror, and by communicating through a listening device in the interviewer's ear. This team approach ensures that each agency gets the unique information it needs without further interviews and adult intervention.

Sponsorship and Support
The Children's Interview Center is a collaborative effort among the Contra Costa County Employment and Human Services Department, Health Services Department, District Attorney's Office, Sheriff's Department, county law enforcement agencies, and Community Violence Solutions. Additional members of the Advisory Committee include Public Health Nursing, Community Care Licensing, and the Contra Costa County Counsel.

The Center is supported in part by grants from the Dean and Margaret Lesher Foundation, Hedge Funds Care, CIBC World Markets, and other generous donors.

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