Children’s Advocacy Center of Centre County
The mission of the Children's Advocacy Center of Centre County, Mount Nittany Health, is to meet the needs of the children and families in our community by providing a community-based, child-focused center that facilitates a compassionate, multidisciplinary approach to the prevention, identification, intervention and treatment of child abuse.
At the Children’s Advocacy Center, our primary focus is on the wellbeing of the child. Our team works together to make each child feel safe and secure and to ensure that each child is given the opportunity to share his or her account of reported abuse, neglect or other crimes he or she may have been victim or witness to. During a visit to the Center, children share their story as part of an investigation and begin their journey to healing. The Center became fully operational on February 21, 2014.
During a visit to the Center, the child will talk to a trained child forensic interviewer. The interview is for fact-finding purposes only and is not a counseling session or psychological evaluation. The child is interviewed using child-focused and child-appropriate questions.
The interview is observed by a team of professionals, which can be composed of an investigating officer, a child protective services caseworker and a representative from the prosecutor’s office. This approach ensures that a child will not be interviewed numerous times during the investigation.
During the child’s interview, the caregiver may meet with a victim advocate in a private waiting room. A victim advocate is trained to support victims of crime. This provides the opportunity for the caregiver to talk with the advocate about concerns, questions or next steps in the process that may not be appropriate to discuss in front of the child.
All of our services are offered to victims and their families at no charge. The Center is dependent on community support and donations in order to continue to offer this valuable support to children in our community.
Consider a donation to the Center by contacting Mount Nittany Health Foundation at 814.234.6777 or fill out the online donation form.
Please feel free to mail a donation. Make checks payable to Mount Nittany Health Foundation:
Mount Nittany Health Foundation
1800 E. Park Avenue
State College, PA 16803
Please note “Children’s Advocacy Center” in the memo line of the check.
Mount Nittany Health is pleased to announce that Meredith Thompson, MS, Mount Nittany Health, has been named as the executive director of the Center.
