“The children that come and see us are potential victims of abuse or neglect, and our job is to offer them a calm, safe place to tell their story and heal. My passion is working with kids, and I love being able to help them. You know recently we had a case in the news, and in this case, I worked with the child and the suspect ended up getting 40 years mandatory sentence, and he will serve 100% of that time. So, seeing that justice for the kids and walking them through the process of being able to build that foundation to help them feel safe here to tell their story – it’s so rewarding.
And it’s definitely a process to help them feel safe. A lot of our kids come in scared and nervous – we interview kids from two and a half years old up to seventeen years old. And a lot of kids, they don’t know what to expect, they’re scared to go back and speak with us. A child will walk in and not make eye contact and keep their head down, and over their journey here they can look at you and they feel relaxed and they can tell their stories. It’s awesome to see the transformation, but when kids tell their story and you can just see the world being lifted off their shoulders – it’s amazing. They’re starting a long journey to healing, and we get to be part of that. We get to help.”