GREENFIELD — The proposed Hancock County Child Advocacy Center is among 200 organizations from across the country vying for grant money provided by a national insurance company. And those spearheading the creation of the center say they need the community’s help to get the funding in hand.
The center — a place where young Hancock County crime victims can report the crimes against them and be safely and easily interviewed by investigators — has been chosen as a finalist for a grant provided by State Farm’s Neighborhood Assist grant program.
Nationwide voting is now underway to determine which projects and programs will receive funding.
The top 40 vote-getters will each receive a $25,000 grant from State Farm to bring their efforts to fruition.
Members of the board overseeing creation of the local child advocacy center are asking residents to visit neighborhoodassist.com and show their support for the project.
Visiting the website and creating a profile — only U.S. residents, 18 or older, with a valid email address can participate — gives users 10 votes to cast a day. Those daily votes can go to one project or be divvied up among multiple ideas, according to the company’s website.
Voting remains open until 11:59 p.m. on Friday. Winners will be announced in September.
Currently the Hancock County Child Advocacy Center is ranked 23 out of 200, according to a leaderboard posted on the website.
The purpose of a child advocacy center is to give young crime victims a safe way to talk about the abuse or neglect they’ve suffered; somewhere warm and welcoming, away from the guns and badges of a police department, to open up about what’s happened to them.
The child’s conversation with an interviewer is captured by surveillance cameras and broadcast into another room in the building, where police, prosecutors and caseworkers from the Indiana Department of Child Services can watch the interview live, making notes and relaying questions back to the interviewer.
This ensures a child is interviewed about criminal allegations just once, minimizing any fear or discomfort they might have.
The board spearheading creation of the Hancock County Child Advocacy Center — which is made up of local law enforcement, prosecutors and other community stakeholders — earned nonprofit status earlier this year. In the spring, they toured Madison County’s child advocacy center to get a better idea of what a Hancock County facility might look like and what a possible start-up and operating budget might be.
Now, they’ve moved onto fundraising and spreading word of their cause.
Securing the State Farm grant would mean having some seed money to secure a home for its facility. And as a grassroots effort, they need all the help they can get, said Bridget Foy, a sheriff’s department detective and president of the board.
Once the local center opens its doors, it will join more than 1,000 child advocacy centers across the globe. Experts say that, when implemented correctly, advocacy centers can improve a community’s response to child abuse and neglect, according to National Children’s Advocacy Center, a training facility for child abuse prevention professionals that opened in Alabama in 1985.