Minnesota's Video Guidance Helps National Agencies Stay Connected to Better Serve Victims of Child Abuse

Business Wire, August 18, 2008

EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. -- Back in 1999, the Midwest Regional Children's Advocacy Center in St. Paul had an idea of how to bring together children's advocates that were located in rural areas without the access to peer support, professional development and key services that those in metropolitan areas enjoyed. The organization contacted Video Guidance, the leading video, voice, streaming and web conferencing services providers in the Upper Midwest, to implement a high-definition video conferencing system that can connect multiple offices in a number of geographic locations.

The program has grown today to include over 70 U.S. locations in the National Children's Alliance (NCA), which supports communities by providing a coordinated investigation and comprehensive response to victims of child abuse.

The regional CACs are funded by the Department of Justice but within each region are hundreds of individual centers that address a wide range of areas from training and technical assistance to public awareness and education. Many of the regional CAC's locations are in more isolated areas where peer support, professional development and services are not as accessible.

"We have worked with Video Guidance for nearly ten years and they have helped us create a network that offers critical communications," said Kim Martinez, outreach coordinator of MRCAC. "They've provided comprehensive video conferencing applications of the newest technologies to help our multidisciplinary teams and professionals respond to allegations of child abuse. Our teams can conduct peer review for forensic interviewers and work with medical examiners and providers. The video conferencing also directly helps us throughout the process of intervention, investigation and subsequent legal proceedings."

The NCA and its regional CAC centers address child abuse cases, therefore strategic communications networks and sound administrative practices are imperative. Some of the issues the teams and professionals face require legal investigation; cultural and diversity understanding; medical, forensic and mental health evaluations; and victim support and advocacy.

Founded in 1999, Eden Prairie, Minn.-based Video Guidance, Inc. (www.videoguidance.com) provides conferencing, telepresence and audio visual technologies and services that facilitate natural, visual communication. Strategic alliances include Conference Plus, Codian, Tandberg (OSLO: TAA.OL), Polycom (NASDAQ: PLCM), LifeSize, On Stream Media Corporation, Radvision (NASDAQ: RVSN), VBrick, and Accordent.