Seated on a child-sized chair, Brooke Martin looks right at home.
That’s intentional, she said.
Martin is a social worker with the Walla Walla office of Child Protective Services. While her office is under the umbrella of Washington state’s Division of Children and Family Services, she works in the Walla Walla Police Department’s headquarters right next to a child-friendly forensic interview room.
That’s the spot where most troubled kids 13 and younger in Walla Walla County end up talking about things that are hard to talk about. Even Martin’s cabinet of puzzles, books and games can be of little solace for children who talk to her about instances of abuse, violence and neglect at home.
Having this specially designed space — complete with bright colors, artsy walls, one-way glass and cameras — is one of the building blocks needed to create a unified approach to child abuse in the Walla Walla Valley, said Deborah Peters.
Peters is coordinator for a newly collaborative effort in the Walla Walla area that aims to help abused, neglected and exploited children and their families get faster, more focused services. It’s not that services haven’t been in place, but they haven’t always been applied in a best-practice method or in ways that helped kids the most, Peters said last week.
Called the Children’s Advocacy Team, representatives from 13 local social service and government agencies have been meeting since late September to begin putting together components of a more effective and child-centered system to investigating cases of abuse and more.
Avoiding retrauma
Right now, things work in a fragmented way, Peters explained.
“We’re not set up to talk to each other,” she said of the various Walla Walla providers charged with keeping kids safe.
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