Alyssa Clark of Zoey’s Place
Photo provided
HANCOCK COUNTY — Since the doors to Zoey’s Place Child Advocacy Center opened in 2021, those working there have helped over 400 victims and their families. A director, a forensic interviewer and a part-time child advocate have done all the work.
The staffing changed at the first of the new year after Katie Molinder, director of Zoey’s Place, secured a $50,000 grant from the National Children’s Alliance allowing Molinder to bring a full-time child and family advocate on board.
“One of the grants they give out is called a “Core Services” grant,” Molinder said. “They’re basically saying they’ll help bridge a gap for one year to better your core services, and that includes securing forensic interviews and child advocacy.”
Alyssa Clark, who had been working for Zoey’s Place since July 2023 was asked to be full time and accepted the position effective January 1.
Clark, who lives in Fortville with her husband and family, said she’s always had a desire to help children. She worked for the Indiana Department of Child Services (DCS) for six and a half years as a family case manager.
“The last two years of that was in foster care licensing,” Clark said. “That’s where I developed a passion for advocating for foster parents.”
Clark said that, following her work for DCS, she worked for a non-profit supporting foster parents across Indiana. She came on board Zoey’s Place part time this past summer an advocate for children and families.
“I really have this passion for helping families and being their advocate,” Clark said.
Clark noted that she will work with kids on a case-by-case basis as all cases are different with some kids processing traumatic experiences differently.
“Regardless, I want to make sure the kids feel safe when they come in here,” Clark said.
While Molinder serves as the executive director for Zoey’s Place, Ronda Etherington is the official forensic interviewer while Clark will continue on as the child and family advocate. However, they are all three trained and qualified to conduct forensic interviews with children.
“I went to our board and told them, ‘If I could have a child and family advocate, I can get a lot more done in my role as the executive director for Zoey’s Place,’” Molinder said. “The board gave us out of their pocket the part-time position and, in the meantime, I was searching for ways to make it full time and we did.”
Molinder noted since the grant is only for one year, she’s already planning on writing another grant to keep the position next year.
In addition to bolstering the staff, Molinder is paying close attention to state legislators this session who are working on House Bill 1123. The bill is specifically designed to affect the wording on protocol at Child Advocacy Centers (CACs).
Molinder said that, last year, a state official with DCS said code indicating who gets information about an abuse case did not allow for officials at CACs to get all the information surrounding an abuse case.
This was brought forth and sent to the state’s CACs despite the center employees being part of a multidisciplinary team tasked with helping victims.
“Basically, CACs were not included in legislation specifying that we were part of the investigation,” Molinder said. “This recently became an issue because someone from the central office of DCS (not local) realized we weren’t legislated as part of the team.”
It meant information could no longer be shared with CACs like it had been shared before, causing officials at CACs to jump through multiple hoops to get the information they needed.
Molinder says that new legislation will make it clearer that CACs need to get all the facts.
Molinder is supporting HB 1123, which will update the wording, allowing for her and her two-person staff to know all the facts surrounding the case.
Molinder hosted Sen. Mike Crider at Zoey’s Place, showed him around the facility, explained everything they do and shared with him the importance of updating legislative protocol wording.
“He’s on board and absolutely supports anything that will help this center do the job to help children,” Molinder said. “The measure just went through a House committee hearing and it was voted unanimously ‘yes.’”
Molinder said it’s important for those leading CACs around the state to be proactive in making sure state officials understand and know the importance of the work they do across the state helping abused children.
Whether it’s following current legislation or writing grants for federal and state funding, Molinder said the bottom line is always pushing forward to help the community’s most vulnerable residents — the children.
“The grant and staying on top of legislation will help the center evolve,” Molinder said. “You can have the passion to want to help children, but I don’t care who you are; if you’re the only one helping 100s of children, you will get burned out.”
