Center Promises Help for Abused Children

Chicago Reporter, The, July, 2001 by Eric W. Luchman, Sarah Karp

The approximately 3,000 Chicago children who are sexually abused each year will now get help at a new facility that pools resources from the Chicago Police Department, the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, the Cook County State's Attorney's office and Cook County Hospital.

Before the Chicago Children's Advocacy Center, 12405. Damon Ave., opened July 1, many victims failed to get proper medical treatment or emotional or legal support because there was no central location for services, said Executive Director Erin Sorenson. "It was an administrative and logistical nightmare," added Mark Cavins, chief of the state's attorney's Sex Crimes Division.

In its January 1998 investigation, "Sex Abuse Cases Decline, But Blacks Still Main Victims," The Chicago Reporter revealed that nearly nine of every 10 sexually abused children in Chicago were minorities, and services for them were spread too thin.

At the time, after a sexual abuse case was reported to police, the victim was taken to one of four Chicago-area hospitals for treatment, said John Poller, the new center's director of policy and communications. The children had to undergo separate interviews with doctors, counselors, caseworkers and police officers, some of whom had no training in handling sexual abuse cases.

During the lengthy investigations, victims would change their stories or stop talking about the crime, the Reporter investigation found.

"The article came at a critical point," Poller said, adding it was the impetus behind the founding of the center. "It drew attention to the need for a center in the city." Now, victims are interviewed only once, and by a trained interviewer, Sorenson said.

The City of Chicago and Cook County have contributed a total of $8.5 million in public funds to build the center, which has a $3.1 million budget for the 2001 fiscal year.