A Voice from the Eastern Door

Federal Government Provides Enhanced Funding to Koala Place

Child and Youth Advocacy Centre will enhance services provided to the Cornwall region

(July 31, 2015) Cornwall, ON – Guy Lauzon, Member of Parliament for Stormont-Dundas-South Glengarry, on behalf of Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada Peter MacKay, announced funding of $160,000 over two years to the Koala Place CYAC Advancement Project.

Child Advocacy Centres (CACs) and Child and Youth Advocacy Centres (CYACs) help child and youth victims and their families navigate the criminal justice system. They provide a safe child- and youth-friendly environment where a coordinated team of professionals work to meet the specific needs of each person. The work of a multidisciplinary team in a CAC or a CYAC can greatly reduce the emotional and mental harm to child and youth victims involved in the criminal justice system.

The Koala Place CYAC will receive $160,000 in funding as follows:

$80,000 in 2015-16

$80,000 in 2016-17

The funding will be used to enhance the work of Koala Place to provide a comfortable, neutral, confidential, physically and psychologically safe child-friendly environment for children and youth who are victims of abuse, and to help them navigate the criminal justice system to greatly reduce the emotional and mental harm to the child.

For example, it will allow Koala Place to enhance the Multi-Disciplinary Team (health, police, child protection, mental health, Crown Attorney, and medical) to ensure the most effective coordinated response possible for every child/youth victim or witness and their family, and establish a case review process that includes all Multi-Disciplinary Team partners.

“We are extremely pleased to receive ongoing support from Justice Canada. Koala Place would not have come so far, so quickly, to address the critical issue of child abuse if not for the support. Helping to give every child and youth the chance to live a safe, healthy and happy life is the most important work we can do,” said Elyse Lauzon-Alguire, Executive Director - Koala Place, Child and Youth Advocacy Centre.

 

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