Southern Regional Children’s Advocacy Center, a program of the National Children’s Advocacy Center, has awarded a grant of more than $22,000 to Family & Children’s Center to equip Matty’s Place with top-of-the-line recording equipment. The equipment upgrade will help ensure more effective investigation and prosecution of child abuse cases, while also making the process more comfortable for children.

Until now, Matty’s Place has been using older recording equipment that may potentially malfunction, according to Carrie Meiners, Matty’s Place coordinator. “The new equipment will help us capture vital information and details that may be lost should we need to stop and restart an interview, and it provides a more sensitive audio component that allows us to capture children’s comments even if they speak softly or whisper.”

Meiners expects to have the equipment installed and all members of the multi-disciplinary team trained in its use by summer 2012.
A program of Family & Children’s Center, Matty’s Place opened its doors this summer after extensive planning by community leaders.

Matty’s Place provides a comfortable, child-friendly, home-like environment where a single, comprehensive investigative interview may 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 severe and persistent mental illness, residential treatment options and several outreach programs.

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