By Daphne Jackson
Emma’s House, a local Children’s Advocacy Center, will host several events through the rest of April as part of National Child Abuse Prevention Month. Kierstin Schmitt, Prevention Coordinator for Emma’s House, said the upcoming events will focus on informing participants about what Emma’s House does, as well as providing prevention training, particularly for professionals who work with children.
The first event, a fundraiser at Backroad Cider on Wednesday, April 13 from 5 to 8 p.m., will involve free appetizers, cider for sale, and purses from Purse for the People. Purse for the People will donate 20 percent of its profits to Emma’s House from any purses sold that night. Backroad Cider is located at 98 Marcus in Hamilton, next to the railroad tracks.
“We have a lot of support from the community,” Schmitt said. “The majority of our funding comes from our community, and we are really, really grateful for the support that we have. Not just in the funding aspect, but overall, the community really supports our work, and we’re grateful for that.”
Emma’s House provides medical exams, forensic interviews and trauma-focused counseling for children who are victims of abuse, according to Schmitt. She said the staff at Emma’s House also works closely with all disciplines involved in cases of child abuse.
“We have a multi-disciplinary team that includes medical, mental health, the victim advocate for the county, law enforcement, child protection services, and the county attorney’s office,” Schmitt said. “We meet on a monthly basis with that group, and we discuss cases that we’ve seen so that we can provide the best services to those kids and families.”
Schmitt said the four staff members at Emma’s House see about 120 children every year. Each of these children is referred to Emma’s House by law enforcement and child protection services, and is part of a case that these organizations are already investigating.
The building itself is arranged according to guidelines for Children’s Advocacy Centers across the country, with the goals of minimizing anxiety and protecting privacy whenever possible. Aside from the front desk, there are four main areas within the building: an interview room, a waiting room, a medical room and a counseling room.
Schmitt said after a case is referred to Emma’s House, the process begins with a one-on-one interview between the child and a forensic interviewer. The conversation occurs in a closed room with a hidden camera and a microphone while the child’s family waits in the waiting room.
“The whole concept of children’s advocacy centers is that they only have to talk about it one time,” she said. “And that’s why it’s video recorded, and then it’s given only to those investigators, those are the only people that will see it.”
Emma’s House also offers a medical exam to every child that goes there, partially to search for any physical findings, although Schmitt said there are no physical findings in 96 percent of child abuse cases nationally. She said the other reason for this exam is to help the children understand that they are normal and healthy.
“A lot of the time, kids that have been hurt like that, they don’t feel that way,” Schmitt said. “They feel like they did something wrong, and they also feel like there’s something wrong with them, because something happened to them.”
She said part of the reason physical findings are rare is because children may not talk about what happened to them for some time after it happens, whether it is weeks or years. She also said only about one in 10 children actually tells what happened.
This is one area where mandatory reporter training can help, Schmitt said. Part of the training is about how to read signs and symptoms of abuse, as well as how to handle it if a child does decide to disclose something.
One of the upcoming events, a presentation by child abuse survivor Tara Walker Lyons on Thursday, April 14 from 6 to 8 p.m. at Hamilton City Hall, focuses particularly on parents, Schmitt said. Montana Attorney General Tim Fox will be a special guest.
“That’s where these events sort of come in,” she said. “This one specifically I designed for parents and caregivers. This one is designed to talk specifically about those prevention pieces of recognizing abuse, recognizing the signs, knowing how to talk to your kids about body safety, knowing how to protect your kids online.”
Schmitt said anyone interested in learning more about how to recognize signs and symptoms of child abuse is welcome to attend any of the events. She said it is important to be able to recognize when children have significant behavioral changes.
“Whether it’s school behavior, whether it’s acting out or shutting down, or… behavior that’s inappropriate for their age, basically, where they would have knowledge of sexual things that are not something that they would know at that age,” Schmitt said. “Those are things that we always ask people to look out for.”
Schmitt said one of the most important things parents can do is talk to their children about body safety. She said it is important to let children know that they have the right to say no to any unwanted physical contact.
“Whether it’s a hug, whether it’s standing too close to them, whether it’s sitting on Grandpa’s lap, if it’s something you don’t want, you can say no, and that person has to respect your boundaries,” Schmitt said. “It’s about helping children to understand the boundaries and giving them permission to say no, and also to tell somebody, tell another adult, if something happens that they’re not comfortable with. Even if it’s just a hug, or something like that.”
She said it is important to continue talking to children about body safety both when they are young, and as they get older and face changes in their situations, and that it is critical to maintain open communication with children, whether they are family members, or not.
“One of the things that I tell groups when I’m talking to them is that every one of us is responsible for protecting kids,” Schmitt said. “Kids cannot protect themselves, so we want to be a resource to the community, and to be able to bring awareness to how to protect kids.”
Schmitt said Emma’s House will offer two events specifically designed for professionals, although they are also open to the public, both of which are on Thursday, April 28 in the Hamilton City Hall. The first event starts at 8:30 a.m., and will include breakfast and lunch, a presentation from a ChildWise Institute representative, and a screening of the film “Paper Tigers.”
“The movie is based on an alternative school in Walla Walla, Washington, where the school was not doing very well, and having a really hard time handling the behaviors of the kids in the school,” Schmitt said. “By introducing this trauma-informed model, they went from a more punitive type of model to a more compassionate type of model. The long-term effects on kids of child abuse and neglect are extensive, and really can relate right back to the massive mental health, physical health issues that people deal with today, because there’s a lot of people that are adults now that never talked about things that happened to them.”
The second event starts at 5:30 p.m., and it will be a condensed version of the daytime program for those who are unable to make it during the day.
Schmitt said teachers can get renewal credits, and counselors can get CEU credits, for this event. She said all the events are free, but anyone who wants to participate in any of the upcoming events should RSVP at the website for Emma’s House: emmashousecac.org.
Schmitt said, although the center staff frequently works with mandatory reporters, they are also willing to talk to other interested groups, such as civic or church organizations.
“We’ve been focusing this year on schools because that’s the largest impact we feel like we can have, because they’re the ones that see kids the most,” said Schmitt. “So we’re starting there, but then I would like to expand further out into the community.”
The last upcoming event, on Saturday, May 7, is a little lighter in tone: a children’s bike parade starting at Emma’s House, 800 N. 2nd, winding through the neighborhood, and ending up at the opening of the Hamilton Farmers Market.
“It’s really just about awareness also, sort of a subtle awareness,” Schmitt said. “People don’t usually come to Emma’s House unless they’re in crisis, so we like to have people come here and do a tour, talk about what we do. The bike parade is just an opportunity to bring people here and do something fun.”