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Missaukee County Child Abuse Victims Will Soon Have More Help

A dream years in the making for an organization that helps victims of child abuse is finally coming true.

The Northern Michigan Mobile Child Advocacy Center in Clare County now has a traveling motor home that will come to victims and make the difficult process that much easier.

The motor home will help investigators and child abuse victims in Missaukee County.

The goal is to bring the services to the children who don’t have access to services of their own.

Soon victims of child abuse in Missaukee County won’t have to go anywhere to get the help they need.

"They’ve been through enough they shouldn’t have to pull their kids out of school to travel a significant distance to get services, and interdisciplinary services like law enforcement and protective services don’t have the resources to travel out of the county," Said Bethany Law.

The Northern Michigan Mobile Child Advocacy Center, decorated with bright colors with kids toys on display, is a safe space for a trained interviewer and a victim to talk.

"We aren’t a very mobile community and we don’t have public transport so this lets the mobile unit go to the children instead of transporting the children to the interview," said Melissa Ransom.

The victims of abuse will be interviewed by just one other person to make them feel more comfortable. But the interview will be recorded so that in a separate room law enforcement and other investigators can hear what’s going on and find out more information.

"A lot of our officers aren’t trained to forensically interview these children in this way, this will help police it will help the prosecutor child protective services so it will be one interview and used for all the agencies," said Sheriff Jim Bosscher.

Meaning the child only has to answer often painful questions once.

The organization hopes to bring mobile centers to other counties.

In the immediate future, the Missaukee County prosecutor hopes it helps kids in her community.

"Hopefully it provides more comfort and services for the victim while also helping us get it right the first time to get a conviction," Melissa said.

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