Will County State’s Attorney Announces $450,000 Federal Grant

Recently, Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow announced that the Will County Children’s Advocacy Center (CAC) was chosen to receive a federal Victim of Crime Assistance (VOCA) grant in the amount of $450,000. The grant will be effective for the 2020 fiscal year.

The substantial grant will help aid in funding life-altering services provided by the CAC. Some of those services include forensic interviews as well as victim and family advocacy. Additionally, the grant will help with the CAC providing trauma-focused therapy for children who have suffered harsh physical abuse, sexual abuse, sexual exploitation, neglect, and exposure to violence.

“The services the Children’s Advocacy Center provides are truly life restoring for the child sexual abuse victims who walk through our doors,” Glasgow said. “These children are emotionally scarred, and without this specialized, compassionate intervention their lives will be destroyed. That is why I was so passionate in establishing the CAC in 1995. Since then, more than 9,000 children and their non-offending family members have received supportive services. Last year alone, the CAC helped more than 660 children from throughout Will County and the numbers are growing each year. The compassionate and caring staff at the CAC helps each of these young abuse victims on their path to a better life.”

Through VOCA funding, CACs and other victim service organizations are able to receive funds from penalties paid by those convicted of federal crimes. Money from those penalties are put into an account called the Crime Victims Funds (CVF). States then receive the funds from Congress to distribute to organizations, such as the CAC, that assist crime victims.

“The award of this highly competitive grant recognizes the outstanding services provided by Will County’s CAC,” Glasgow said. “The Illinois legislature has declared that our most precious resource is our children, and at the CAC we truly ‘CHERISH ALL CHILDREN.’ This grant will allow the Children’s Advocacy Center to continue responding to the severe emotional, psychological and physical needs of the many child victims served each year, as well as to continue maintaining our high success rate in the prosecution of child predators who sexually abuse youngsters. We must stop sexual predators dead in their tracks so they can never do this again.”

Not only does the CAC provide counseling services, they also play a vital role in prosecuting child predators, particularly those who sexually abuse minors. Once the local police department receives a child sexual assault claim, the next step is scheduling an interview with the CAC. The child then sits for an interview with a trusted team consisting of the following: a trained forensic interviewer, a police investigator from a local jurisdiction, expert sex crime prosecutors from the Will County State’s Attorney’s office, a caseworker from the Department of Children and Family Services, and a CAC counselor.

“Without the CAC, the child may end up having to tell the worst story of their life over and over again, to police, medical professionals, attorneys, therapists, investigators, judges, and others. This invariably results in inconsistent statements, which are the death knell for a criminal prosecution,” Glasgow said. “At the CAC, the child tells their story only once, to a trained interviewer who is witnessed by the members of the multidisciplinary team. The trained interviewer knows the proper questions to ask in a way that does not re-traumatize the victim or suggest an answer, which guarantees a thorough and truthful statement.”

In October alone, the team interview approach provided by the CAC resulted in two crucial prison sentences for Will County child sexual assault cases. Chandel Dirkans of Joliet was sentenced to 118 years in prison for multiple aggravated criminal sexual assaults against the minor stepdaughter of his sister. Likewise, Anthony Creasy, also of Joliet, received an 84-year prison sentence for repeated predatory sexual assaults of his girlfriend’s daughter over several years, beginning when she was 8-years-old.

Glasglow believes those convictions came as the result of the work done by the multidisciplinary team at the CAC, in addition to the courtroom prosecution by sex crimes prosecutors in the Will County State’s Attorney’s office.

Image via the Office of the Will County State’s Attorney