After reaching an agreement with the city, the Covington County Child Advocacy Centre will move into a new location next year.
The City Council voted to declare the property at 122 6th St., which was known to some residents as the former superintendent’s office, surplus. Mayor Earl Johnson could then enter into an agreement to sell it to the CAC.
The mayor stated that the property will be bought at $126,000. This is comparable to the appraised value.
Two provisions were requested by the council to be included in the sale. The first was that the city would be given the opportunity to purchase the property back if the CAC decides to sell it in the future. Council members requested that signage be put on the property in order to raise awareness about the building’s history as the city’s first library, and later, as the office for Oscar Zeanah, the former superintendent of schools.
Since 2015, the Child Advocacy Center is located in its current location near Andalusia Health. It rents a building. Walt Merrell, Covington County District attorney, stated that the CAC plans to move to its new location by spring. The center is managed by the district attorney’s office, which is also a partner organization.
“We want security for the long-term. We are currently a tenant, but by purchasing we secure the future for the Advocacy Center. We have also grown so much, that we are now bursting at all the seams in our current location. There is no room for growth there. Merrell stated that the new location will better serve our long-term needs.”
Officials at CAC stated that the new building will need some renovations before they can move their services.
Merrell stated that although there will be some work before we can move, we will begin immediately to complete the process.
The Child Advocacy Center offers a multi-disciplinary child-focused response to child abuse in order to prevent the revictimization of severely abused children as well as sexually abused kids. This multidisciplinary team approach includes law enforcement, child protection services, prosecution, medical, and forensic interview as well as victim advocacy services.
The CAC has conducted 748 forensic interviews since 2015.
The organization hired a SANE-P certified nurse in July 2016. This nurse is available to perform acute and non-acute medical examinations on children who have been abused sexually or subject to serious physical abuse. Before this, families and children had to travel to Birmingham to receive these services.
Mental health services were created in July 2022. Since then, child abuse victims have received free play therapy and trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy for 2,735 hours.
The post Andalusia Council opens new Child Advocacy Center appeared first in The AndalusiaStar-News.
