Family & Children’s Center has appointed Carrie Meiners as coordinator for Matty’s Place, Winona’s child advocacy center. Meiners will oversee day-to-day operations, supervise staff, work directly with child abuse victims and their families and coordinate the multidisciplinary team.

Meiners joined Family & Children’s Center in 2008 and has worked in a number of posts with the center, including residential care and as a case manager. She holds a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice with a minor in child advocacy from Winona State University, where she trained with the National Child Protection Training Center. She has also interned with Family & Children’s Center’s Stepping Stones child advocacy center in La Crosse.

Matty’s Place is scheduled to open this spring. It has been in planning and development since 2005 when representatives from the county attorney's office, the sheriff's department, the Winona Police Department and Winona County Social Services saw the need for a neutral, child-friendly, home-like environment where a single, comprehensive interview could occur in cases of alleged child abuse and neglect. Matty’s Place is a memorial to Matthew Eappen, who was shaken to death by a caregiver in February of 1997.

Founded in 1881, Family & Children’s Center is a regional, not-for-profit agency that has helped thousands of children, adults and families enjoy better tomorrows. The center provides a continuum of services designed to strengthen families and promote individual well-being, including child abuse/neglect prevention programs, alternative schools, community-based counseling, community support services for people with chronic mental illness, residential treatment options and several outreach programs.

With headquarters in La Crosse, Wis., and Winona, Minn., the center serves people throughout southwestern Wisconsin and southeastern Minnesota and has additional offices in Black River Falls, Wis., Holmen, Wis., Rochester, Minn., and Viroqua, Wis.