By Susan DeVilder    May 11, 2023

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Braveheart Children’s Advocacy Center is located just off Route 81 in Cambridge, and if you ask the center’s Executive Director Jackie Diediker, it could be the county’s best-kept secret. Not many people have heard about Braveheart and even if they have, they probably don’t know much about its mission or its purpose.

“There’s such a need for our services,” Diediker said.

The need is so great in fact that the center in Cambridge is expanding operations into another part of their building to create a dedicated space just for therapy.

Diediker has been with the organization for the last 13 years but it was formed over two decades ago. On their website is a brief history of how the advocacy center got its start as a response to five young children who were beaten to death by their mothers’ abusive boyfriends in Henry County during the 1990s.

Out of necessity, a multidisciplinary team (MDT) was organized that looped in prosecutors, police and the Department of Children and Family Services. Braveheart was created to provide a coordinated response to child abuse allegations. It first opened its doors in Cambridge to serve the county in 1999. It expanded and began partnering with Marshall, Putnam and Stark counties in 2002, before adding Bureau County to the team in 2007. There are centers in both Princeton and Lacon as well.

Before Braveheart, children that were the victims of abuse were required to tell their stories repeatedly. A typical scenario might be a child as young as five having to talk about their experience with a teacher, a principal, a school nurse, a police officer, a detective, child protective services, an attorney and then a counselor.

Before children’s advocacy centers, any child abuse victim would be required to go through layers of investigation, said Taylor Hager, an MDT coordinator with Braveheart, but now they only speak with one specially-trained forensic interviewer from the beginning.

“So children aren’t retraumatized,” she said.

The Cambridge center is designed with children’s comfort and well-being in mind. On the walls hang an assortment of hearts, donated by community artists. Donated quilts made by groups such as Project Linus and the Bishop Hill Quilters are stacked in the entryway, ready to be handed out to small visitors. Artwork created by children from ages 2 to 17 fill the hallways, as do inspirational and empowering quotes, such as “A person’s a person, no matter how small” by Dr. Seuss.

On another wall is a painted tree that bears the names of Braveheart’s “Heroes of Hope,” an annual award given out to people who have provided exemplary support to the organization. At the annual Superhero 5 K fundraiser at Baker Park last weekend, the latest recognition was awarded to Henry County State’s Attorney Catherine L Runty. Her name will soon be added to the center’s “hero” wall.

Kids who come to Braveheart are made to feel at home. There’s a snack area and a welcoming reception area with toys, games and a tv. Some of them might just require services for a short time, or their cases could be followed by the child advocacy center for years.

“We will stay with families as long as they need us,” said Diediker, adding that their services are free. They not only offer forensic interviews, but access to mental health, case management, advocacy and community outreach.

On average, the center reviews about 60 to 70 cases a month in Henry County alone, and conducts about 15 to 30 interviews a month. Last year, 215 interviews were conducted in all five counties.

About half of the cases they encounter are juvenile on juvenile abuse, but 95% of their cases deal with sexual abuse. Physical abuse cases are generally prosecuted by law enforcement and DCFS and about 99 % of all abuse perpetrated on young children are from people that the child knows.

Diediker said the abuse of children happens “much more often than you think. People who perpetuate these abuses, they groom not only the child, but the community. People can be likable.”

The subject is a tough one for people, she said. “They don’t want to hear about child abuse and they don’t want to know it’s going on in their community.”

Diediker said there is a stigma attached to it for both the parents and the child.

“Trauma does really funny things to people.”

One of the biggest hurdles is that children aren’t always believed and even when they are believed, their trauma isn’t always addressed. Hager has experienced that firsthand.

“Once a year, I get a case that just about breaks my heart,” said Hager.

Hager, herself, is a Braveheart kid.

“It was sexual abuse,” she said. “I was here for therapy. I had to drop out of college. I didn’t do well.”

Hager was traumatized as a child and didn’t work through it. In fact, Braveheart recognizes the impact that lack of effective intervention has on children. They often experience ongoing and long term adverse social, emotional and developmental outcomes throughout their lifetimes. Hager certainly did.

“It hits you later in life,” she said.

Her experience and trauma caused her to act out, and she put herself in more and more dangerous situations. Eventually she asked herself why she kept repeating that pattern and reached out for help at Braveheart. She later began to volunteer for the organization. When a position opened up four years ago, she took it.

“One thing led to another, they had an open position and I never looked back,” said Hager.

The staff includes not only Diediker and Hager, but a forensic interviewer, a therapist and two advocates; one for Henry and Stark counties and another advocate who covers the other three counties.The multidisciplinary approach allows the advocacy center to provide for the needs of each child.

“No one person has all of the knowledge. It takes all of us working together,” the executive director said.

Braveheart is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit and is funded through grants, donations and fundraisers. Donations can be made through their website https://braveheartcac.org or by mailing a check to 292 South East Rd. Ste A, Cambridge, 61238.