St. George—The Washington County Children’s Justice Center is pleased to announce the ground breaking for an expansion project that will strengthen access to trauma-informed services for children who have been victims of abuse and other crimes.

Located adjacent to the current Children’s Justice Center at 463 East 500 South, the new building will house the Children’s Justice Center’s growing medical and mental health programs and will also provide training space for the Center’s multidisciplinary team that investigates and prosecutes child abuse cases in Washington County. The current Children’s Justice Center building will continue to house forensic interviewing and victim advocacy services.

The ground-breaking event is scheduled for Wednesday, April 26 at 10 AM.

“We are honored to hold the stories of children who have been victims of abuse and to help them on their journey to becoming healthy, thriving survivors,” says Kristy Pike, director of the Washington County Children’s Justice Center. “While it is true that Washington County has been growing, this additional building is more about our expanded services. When the current space was completed 15 years ago, no one was thinking we would be offering medical and mental health services on-site, but today we do. Now there will be space designed specifically for those services.”

Like all Children’s Justice Center services, the new building will be a public/private partnership. Intermountain Health has provided a charitable land lease on the 1.22-acre parcel of land where the expansion will be constructed. Washington County has pledged $2 million in American Rescue Plan Act construction funding. The final $500 thousand needed to complete the construction project is currently being raised in the community through a combination of grants and donations. (https://cjcwc.com/capital-campaign/)

“We are constantly in awe of the generosity of our community as the Center works to fulfill its mission of collaborating with multidisciplinary partners to protect each child, advance justice, promote healing, and educate our community,” says Joanie Ayers, acting chair of the Friends of the Washington County Children’s Justice Center. “Our community has always stepped up, and we believe they will do so again.”

“We are appreciative of the great collaboration between Intermountain, Washington County, the City of St. George, the state of Utah, Children’s Justice Center staff, and private partners to quietly care for the most vulnerable in our community – our children,” says Washington County Commissioner Gil Almquist.

“The Children’s Justice Center is crucial to our county’s response to crimes against children,” says Washington County Attorney Eric Clarke. “The collaboration that happens there between CJC staff, law enforcement, Child Protective Services, medical and mental health professionals, prosecutors, and others is key in helping us ensure a safe community.”

“Adverse childhood experiences like abuse have been shown to increase risk factors for nine of the ten of the leading causes of death in Utah, including things you would expect, like suicide, and things you may not expect, like cancer and Alzheimer’s,” says Pike. “The services provided by our Children’s Justice Center are designed to buffer those effects and help children grow into healthy adults.”

The Friends of the Washington County Children’s Justice Center is a qualified 501(c)(3) with a mission of supporting the work of the Washington County Children’s Justice Center. Services of the Center include forensic interviews, victim advocacy, and medical and mental health services for children who have been victims or witnesses of abuse or other crimes. In 2022 the Center served 420 primary victims and their non-offending families. The most common allegation for the kids seen at the Center was child sexual abuse/assault.

The Washington County Children’s Justice Center is accredited by the National Children’s Alliance, and is a public/private partnership funded in-part by the Utah Attorney General’s Office, Washington County, The Utah Office for Victims of Crime under the Office for Victims of Crime Department of Justice, the Friends of the Washington County Children’s Justice Center, and by private donations. For more information or to donate, visit www.cjcwc.com.