It’s taken two decades of planning, but Cuyahoga County has finally joined other counties of its size with a new center for abused children.
Canopy Child Advocacy Center will provide resources for victims and their families all in one place.
The center joins together 18 entities responsible for investigating and responding to cases of child abuse. Services in the new facility include a medical suite for on-site assessment, office spaces for mental health therapy and observation rooms for victim interviews.
Director Jennifer Johnson says the center will make services more convenient and less traumatic for victims and their families when it opens next week.
“The family can come to the center and get all those services in one place at one time versus having to go and get them throughout the county," she said. "And that also, then, the child doesn’t have to tell that story about that trauma over and over and over again. Presently, without having one common place where an interview can happen and be recorded, the child has to tell that narrative an upwards of 15 times.”
The center is located on the property of the Domestic Violence and Child Advocacy Center on Payne Avenue near downtown Cleveland.
The partner agencies working with the new center include:
- Case Western Reserve University
- Cleveland Clinic Foundation
- Cleveland Division of Police
- Cleveland Rape Crisis Center
- Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas
- Cuyahoga County Division of Children and Family Services
- Cuyahoga County Domestic Relations Court
- Cuyahoga County Juvenile Court
- Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office
- Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Department
- Cuyahoga County Witness Victim Service Center
- Domestic Violence & Child Advocacy Center*
- Family Justice Center
- FrontLine Service
- International Association of Forensic Nurses
- MetroHealth System
- United Way of Greater Cleveland
- University Hospitals