Nonprofit of the Year Winner | Midsize: The Child Advocacy Center Inc.

For the people behind The Child Advocacy Center Inc., Springfield Business Journal’s Nonprofit Excellence Awards offers a rare opportunity for public recognition.

“Moments like this I think are really important for our staff, and also for the community visibility that comes with it,” says Executive Director Katiina Dull. “People who receive services here don’t necessarily leave and go make a Yelp review. It’s not something you go broadcast to the world, so a lot of the work we do often feels unseen.”

That makes recognition especially welcome, Dull says.

“The privacy piece is so critical to what we do, and that makes it very hard to tell our story,” she says.

Dull says The Child Advocacy Center makes an impact by helping children who are in harm’s way.

“So often, it really is a kiddo’s ability to talk about what they have or have not experienced that helps shape a lot of that,” she says. “There are not often witnesses, and there’s very rarely physical evidence, so being able to help ensure that a child is safe really comes down to creating that environment where they can talk about what is going on.”

Dull says once a child can talk about what they’ve been experiencing, her team is better able to align treatment and healing.

The center is in the middle of a capital campaign to relocate to a larger facility. Doing so would allow children to be screened for therapy services during their forensic appointment, without requiring a whole new meeting.

“That will allow us to bring that mental health component on-site and create a very seamless transition for kiddos and families,” she says.

Dull says while planning for the move, her staff experienced a moment that showed them they were heading in the right direction.

In that instance, a mother was trying to get a child in for therapy services, but for three weeks, she skirted an appointment, repeatedly hanging up the phone at the point when she was asked why services were needed. Telling the story again was just too hard, Dull says.

“We’re trying to reduce the need for them to go to another building and see another set of faces,” Dull says.

She estimates the center will move into its new space, nearly double in size, within six to nine months.