Above, Monmouth County Acting Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni describes the services that are provided at the Monmouth County Child Advocacy Center, Freehold Township. At left, guests mingle prior to the ceremony. Children who have been abused now have a refuge in Monmouth County. With the cutting of a ribbon to mark the completion of phase two of construction at the Monmouth County Child Advocacy Center, Kozloski Road, Freehold Township, the long road to providing abused children safety and comfort in one location has been achieved.
“It is the most basic thing to help children in dire need of support from physical and sexual abuse,” Monmouth County Acting Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni said.
Gramiccioni, former prosecutors, Monmouth County freeholders and other county officials gathered on Oct. 27 to formally announce the completion of the facility.
“Our vision from the beginning was to provide for abused kids and their families. This facility makes it possible for abused children to be treated medically under the same child-friendly roof where they will reveal their trauma to a team of people who will help them put their life back together,” said John Kaye, a former county prosecutor.
PHOTOS BY STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER ERIC SUCAR When a youngster enters the Child Advocacy Center, “the healing begins right then and there,” Gramiccioni said.
Phase one of the center was completed in 2009 at a cost of $2.4 million and included the construction of the building with forensic investigative rooms, a child-friendly waiting area, video and audio recording equipment, offices and a conference room.
Groundbreaking for phase two took place in September 2014. Work included the construction of additional forensic investigative rooms, therapy rooms, a medical suite, a staff nurse, a serenity garden and an art therapy room.
A therapy room at the Monmouth County Child Advocacy Center provides a setting where a youngster who has been abused can begin the road to recovery. “This is the culmination of a great project that benefits everyone in the county. Four prosecutors have carried this project forward. The idea of the Child Advocacy Center was born with former prosecutor John Kaye and advanced by former prosecutors Luis Valentin and Peter Warshaw, and now I have the honor of carrying the ball across the goal line,” Gramiccioni said. The prevention and investigation of child abuse, Kaye said, was and still is the primary law enforcement goal of the county.
“The building is a symbol that tells one truth: we love our kids and we are going to protect them,” Kaye said.
Freeholder Lillian G. Burry said the Child Advocacy Center is “the most single important thing we have accomplished as freeholders.”
About 600 cases are processed through the center annually, according to Lynn Reich, secretary of the Friends of the Monmouth
County Child Advocacy Center. The cost to build phase two was $1.8 million, of which $1 million came from the prosecutor’s office and the freeholders, and $800,000 came from private funds, Reich said.
A team effort, according to Martin Krupnick, chairman of the Friends of the Monmouth County Child Advocacy Center, made the facility a reality.
“The goal of the partnership (between the Friends and Monmouth County) was to create a child advocacy center with a child-focused environment designed to reduce the trauma to child abuse victims and their families (that is) often created when a child discloses sexual abuse, physical abuse or neglect. Our goals were met through this successful private-public partnership,” Krupnick said.
Staff members in the prosecutor’s Special Victims Bureau will be transferred to the center, according to Reich. The building will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, but all personnel will be on call 24 hours a day, seven days per week.
“One of the great things about the Child Advocacy Center is that it is not just investigative. There is communication here in a familiar place,” said Peter Boser, senior litigation counsel, Special Victims Bureau, Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office.
The center is based on a national model of which there are 10 others in New Jersey and 500 across the United States, Boser said.
The Child Advocacy Center will have an open house in April, which is Child Abuse Awareness Month, Krupnick said.