This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Community Corner

Bucks CAC receives $10K grant from Foundations Community Partnership

Bucks County Children’s Advocacy Center (CAC) will be able to incorporate the highly regarded EFI (extended forensic interviewing) model at all three of its Bucks offices to further  protect children who may be victims of abuse, thanks to a $10,000 grant from Foundations Community Partnership (FCP).

FCP’s generous support enables Bucks CAC, whose operations are overseen by nonprofit Network of Victim Assistance, to enhance its services to provide EFI for very young children, children with physical, developmental or cognitive disabilities, and children who may have severe or multiple traumatic events.

“Across the country, research and experience have shown that children are often reluctant and resistant to disclose abuse due to the complex dynamics and stigma of child abuse,” says Leslie Slingsby, LSW, director of the CAC.

“While it is challenging to keep children physically safe when they are reluctant to disclose abuse, it can be even more challenging to keep them mentally safe during the disclosure process. The EFI process helps us do that.”

Although a single forensic interview is appropriate and “best practice” for most cases, a subset of children is unable to disclose during one single interview and may require additional time, putting them at emotional risk. To protect and help these children, experts have created this EFI model.

The EFI model is still a fact-finding, hypotheses-testing, non-leading, supportive structure, but it allows the professional interviewer additional time to accommodate a child’s needs. Extra sessions also give the child time to develop a rapport and trust with the interviewer and feel more comfortable in the environment.

EFI will be available in all three offices: Jamison, Perkasie and Fairless Hills.

Foundations Community Partnership (www.fcpartnership.org) is a private non-profit operating foundation that supports behavioral health education and research, provides grants for non-profit organizations, awards scholarships to Bucks County high school seniors, subsidizes service learning internships for college students and underwrites community education programs.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?