2017 Economic Impact Awards Charitable Nonprofit of the Year: The Child Advocacy Center Inc.

The Child Advocacy Center Inc. has a different kind of economic impact in its crosshairs.

Barbara Brown-Johnson, executive director of the Springfield nonprofit that provides investigative services for children who have been subject to abuse, points to national figures that tell a daunting tale.

In 2014, first-time abuse cost the national economy $1.8 million in total expenditures, $800,000 in gross product loss and $500,000 in personal income loss, according to the CAC. Similar statistics have not been tracked locally, but CAC officials believe the problem is proportionate in the Queen City.

“That’s why we try to raise visibility at every turn so people know who we are,” says Brown-Johnson, who’s scheduled to retire on Nov. 1 after holding the job for 19 years.

CAC’s team comprises law enforcement, a children’s division, juvenile officers and medical employees working with a $1.9 million budget made up of federal, state and foundation grants, state-appropriated funds, in-kind gifts and donations.

Last year, the nonprofit served 1,349 children, an increase of 30 kids from 2015. That’s also up 68 percent from 803 in 2007. The organization already has served 125 more children through March, meaning the organization is on pace to serve a record 1,850 children in 2017 if trends continue.

“When children walk through our door, that is an opportunity to, as we like to say, have it be the beginning of the end of their abuse,” Brown-Johnson says. “If the forensic interview goes well, if the team gets good information, then the team is able to make great decisions about where the child will be safest, where the child should be staying or not staying, and who the child should be kept away from.”

Following that work is case management, where nonprofit officials “try our darndest to get them into some mental health support.”

“Research shows that if a child has the support of the biomother and has appropriate mental health support, the odds of them being a victim against goes down dramatically,” Brown-Johnson says.

To help accomplish its goals, CAC needs the community that, in turn, supports the nonprofit.

About $600,000 of the nonprofit’s budget comes from donations or fundraisers.

“A huge chunk of what we get in goes for the things that we can’t get covered through grants,” Brown-Johnson says. “We can use those unrestricted dollars to meet unmet needs, to support staff salary, to pay the light bill. We have to keep the lights on.”

CAC’s largest fundraiser is Over the Edge, for which businesspeople and community leaders rappel down the 11-story Sky Eleven building.

This year’s event brought in $300,001, which included a run, bike race and dinner. It was a bit shy of last year’s inaugural haul of $320,000. With a goal of $300,000, an anonymous donor pushed CAC over the edge with a $7,822 gift.

“Two years in a row, that’s been our biggest fundraiser,” Brown-Johnson says. “All of the different ways that we can raise funds that day and every day and at every event we have just helps keep this mission alive.”