By Rhonda Dunaway
Enterprise-Journal
Adrienne Garner knows leading the Southwest Mississippi Children’s Advocacy Center in McComb will come with its share of challenges, but she’s up to the job.
The advocacy center conducts forensic interviews in suspected child abuse cases in the center’s kid-friendly environment with non-leading questions. The videotaped interviews can be introduced as evidence in order to prevent the victims from re-living their trauma by having to testify in court, Garner said.
“The purpose and mission of this center is fascinating to me because action can be taken on behalf of the children,” Garner said. “In other agencies my hands were tied because of protocol, and all I could do was file a report, but at the advocacy center, this is where the report meets action. We can really help these kids.”
Garner, a Pike County native, worked for a mental health center in Greenwood, moved back home last year and worked for a hospice service in Brookhaven before being chosen as the child advocacy center’s new director in March.
She is the daughter of George and Carol Garner of McComb. She graduated high school at Parklane Academy and got her associates degree from Southwest Mississippi Community College, a bachelor’s degree in social work from Delta State University and her master’s from the University of Southern Mississippi.
The center in McComb is part of the National Children’s Advocacy Center, Garner said.
“We follow a nationally recognized protocol for the interviews, which must be conducted by a forensic interviewer, which requires specialized training,” she said. “We do this to prevent having the testimony thrown out of court or deemed invalid.”
Carol Clark, who holds a master’s degree in social work and has been through the NCAC’s “Child First” training for interviewers, is the center’s forensic interviewer.
The center, which is not an arm of law enforcement, also provides resources for counseling.
It educates local students on child abuse prevention, and that role has been stepped up lately as April is Child Abuse prevention Month.
Garner said she quickly realized that one of the biggest challenges to the job would come in the form of budget cuts.
Last year the center lost a $33,000 federal grant. The center receives no state funding, and most of its budget is made up of donations and fundraisers.
The center served hundreds of children in 10 southwest Mississippi counties last year.
Last year, it served 83 children in Pike County — a number that’s on track to be surpassed as 79 children have already been served this year.
The center also serves Lincoln, Franklin, Lawrence, Copiah, Wilkinson, Adams and Claiborne counties.
Pike, Lincoln, Walthall, Amite, Lawrence and Copiah counties are part of a group that make an annual contribution based on the previous year’s numbers to cover all interviews for the year. Franklin, Wilkinson, Adams and Claiborne counties pay for each interview — a practice that came following the loss of the $33,000 federal grant.
“It was either not serve these children or start charging the counties,” said center office manager Kim Walley.
Even with these contributions, the center still must make up for the budget shortage through fundraising.
If the center doesn’t meet its financial goal, it may be forced to reduce its already small staff and some of its programs.
“The center is here for the community, but now the center needs the community’s help with donations and volunteers,” Garner said.
The center is having its first fundraiser for the year with a “Strike Out Child Abuse” girl’s softball tournament set for Saturday, May 7, 2011, at the Brookhaven Sports Complex. For more information on the tournament, call Dee Bates at 783-6677.
