$5.7 Million Grant To Build Child Advocacy Center In Montgomery County

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, PA — A nonprofit organization that works on behalf of children who have suffered abuse and their families has been awarded a multi-million-dollar state grant to help construct a new facility.

The Mission Kids Child Advocacy Center of Montgomery County was given a $5.75 million grant from the Pennsylvania Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program to go toward the construction of its planned Child Advocacy and Training Center.

Mission Kids is a social service organization that provides a "neutral space" in which children who have suffered abuse can be interviewed.

The group says it also is a leader in prevention education, professional training, research, public policy work and mentorship.

Legislative leaders praised the grant funding, calling child abuse a "growing public health crisis that requires urgent intervention and response."

"The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated this issue significantly, placing an intense strain on our community's most vulnerable members," House Democratic lawmakers said in a joint statement. "The child advocacy center model is an evidence-based approach that has been found to provide a faster healing process for the child, more fluid collaboration between all professionals, and more effective and streamlined investigations."

The project for the new center will involve acquiring and renovating a commercial site in the county.

Specifics on precise location were not divulged.

The new center is expected to have high-tech forensic interviewing suites with observation areas for multi-disciplinary team members, family advocacy meeting rooms, co-located office space for law enforcement and social service professionals, numerous trauma therapy rooms, a specialized child-abuse medical suite for the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and administrative office space.

"As a child advocate, I've seen first-hand the services provided by Mission Kids," State Rep. Liz Hanbidge, D-Montgomery, said in a statement. "I've sat in the room with district attorneys, police, therapists, the Office of Children and Youth, and others, working together in multidisciplinary teams to ensure justice, and the safety and health of child victims in this county. I'm in awe of the work that Mission Kids does to help families and secure justice, and I look forward to seeing how this funding will allow them to expand the services they provide and the impact they have."

The grant funding comes from Pennsylvania's Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program, which is administered by the Office of the Budget to help with the acquisition and construction of regional economic, cultural, civic, recreational and historical improvement projects.

The new center is expected to have on-site medical services, including what the legislators said is a first-ever dedicated board-certified child abuse pediatrician dedicated just to Montgomery County.

"Mission Kids is a one-of-a-kind program, and this grant, allowing them to create the only dedicated training facility in the northeast region for child abuse professionals, means that they can expand to help more families and will bring professionals seeking training to our region," State Rep. Steve Malagari, a Montgomery County Democrat, said in a statement.

Fellow Montgomery County Democratic Rep. Joe Webster said the new center would help ensure that the process of treating and helping abused children will be less traumatic and more accessible.

According to Leslie Slingsby, the executive director of Mission Kids, the new center will combine a fully equipped child advocacy center with an on-site medical component, a trauma therapy suite, collaborative space for law enforcement and prosecutors, and a large-scale training center.