GREENFIELD — The new Child Advocacy Center of Franklin County and the North Quabbin Region on Wisdom Way in Greenfield — the county’s newest resource in the fight to stop child abuse — will throw its doors open to the public Friday afternoon during an official grand opening event.
Irene Woods, a 35-year veteran of the Department of Children and Families who will serve as the center’s director, said the newly renovated building — formerly an abandoned cemetery caretaker’s house — will offer a range of legal, forensic and medical services to suspected abuse victims in a non-threatening, trauma-free manner.
Renovations were completed this winter. The open house event will run from 3 to 6 p.m.
“Area contractors and artists volunteered hundreds of hours to transform the old house at 56 Wisdom Way into a beautiful center to serve Franklin County’s youngest citizens,” Woods said.
The facility’s interview center is comprised of two rooms — one is filled with soft chairs and a sofa and the walls are painted with bright murals. A camera hangs in one corner, transmitting audio and video to a flat screen television on the wall and a large table in the center.
The former will be used by a forensic interview specialist to interview children who are suspected to have been the victims of abuse, while the other room will be used by prosecutors, police, medical professionals, DCF representatives and social workers to analyze the interview and decide what steps need to be taken.
Having the ability to gather all those interested parties in one place, Woods said, makes it easier on the child by only requiring to relive painful experiences one time. It will also reduce travel time for the families involved.
Woods said it will be the 12th such center in Massachusetts, a state that, she said, has one of the highest rates of child abuse in the country.
The center will also include a medical room, one that will soon be completed and equipped, so that Dr. Stephen Boos, a specialist from Baystate Franklin Medical Center can carry out examinations.
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