By Sheila G. Kelley, Development Coordinator
“Our first primary goal is to help the victim that has been abused but we recognize that kind of trauma effects everybody,” said executive director Veronica Mosqueda-Bargdill. Heart to Heart, located in downtown Newton, is a child advocacy center where the staff and small group of professionals serve child victims of abuse and their non-offending parent.
“We tell the parents that it’s <the abuse> a ripple effect and you’re going to experience every kind of emotion and it affects everybody different,” she said.
Heart to Heart Child Advocacy Center staff works with other area agencies to meet physical, mental, and emotional needs of children. According to their website, www.hearttoheart.com, their core mission is to help children who have suffered abuse to heal and improve their community’s ability to stop child abuse. They also provide resources for child abuse prevention.
A multi-disciplinary team meets monthly in each county they serve and consists of the county attorney, law enforcement, Department of Children and Families, mental health and medical. They also have school counselors and social workers available to provide further assistance.
“We know that just because they come here, the trauma doesn’t stop affecting them and we know it can affect any aspect of their life so it’s nice to have all these people together,” Veronica said. “We’re there from the moment they come in here to the time their case is completed, whether it be through the court system or not.”
Once a family is referred to HTH, the child goes through a forensics interview to get as much information on the alleged act of abuse. While the evaluation team is gathering information from the interview, another HTH staff will visit with family members in the outer reception area.
“I’ll talk to the family about setting up resources such as medical, making sure they have their medical needs met and connecting them with trauma-informed therapists in our area,” said Dayna Steinmetz, Newton family advocate.
The reason for the forensic interview is to build a case against the alleged offender – what happened, timelines, any information that will help bring charges to the case. Grants from Harvey County United Way provides funding to purchase necessary equipment and other items used to make the encounter the best it can be in such circumstances.
“We make sure that we’re all working together, that we’re not pushing the child, that the child seems comfortable the whole time,” Veronica said. “I tell them, I promise the majority of the time, their child doesn’t realize they’re having a conversation. They just think they are talking.”
Veronica stated that the agencies can only do the forensic interview once. The whole system is set up so the child doesn’t have to do it again.
“We go in knowing we have one shot to interview this child. That’s why it started in the first place. There was a kid and they ended up being interview 12 times over the course of all this. It retraumatizes a child, the victimization affects the child over and over,” she said.
“The grants from HCUW have been instrumental in our being able to keep up with the latest technology to make the entire process easier for not only the children and their families, but also the agencies involved to make a successful case against the <alleged> abuser,” she said.
The United Way 