Hope House Children’s Advocacy Center

Earniesha serves as the Family Advocate at Hope House Children’s Advocacy Center. She shares how The Dr. Phil Foundation changes lives.

My position was funded in part by a grant from The Dr. Phil Foundation. As the Family Advocate, I have the opportunity to greet and enlighten each family and child who arrives for a forensic interview. In most cases, they are uncertain, nervous and disturbed by the abuse that has taken place in their family. In a comforting way, I educate them on the interview process, provide them with multiple counseling resources, lend a listening ear, validate their feelings and answer any questions they may have. It is of great importance to me that I provide them with support services they need and see to those connections being successful.

I recently had the opportunity to work with a 13-year-old girl who had been sexually abused by a friend of her family. You can imagine the mixed emotions and mistrust that developed from her horrific experience. When she and her family arrived to our facility, their nervousness was evident. After educating and assuring them about our services and how we assist with the investigative process, the family had a different point of view. It was then that I noticed a flicker of hope in their eyes, and the child was much more comfortable to proceed to the interview process.

Having this support from the Family Advocate helps the child and family feel secure, which may aid in producing a successful interview and brings law enforcement one step closer to getting child abusers off of the streets and out of our community.