United Way Day: The Collins Center

Our conversation today with Kaycee Childress, CEO of United Way Northern Shenandoah Valley featured Anita Lunsford from The Collins Center. Anita gave a brief history and origin story of Collins Center and explained how long they have served Page County and surrounding counties and the value in now having a physical presence there. She told us of the four areas of service Collins Center provides and explained what a Child Advocacy Center (CAC) and how it works. She also told us about forensic interviews, how they work and why they're vital to recovery from the trauma. She told us about their collaborative partners and how United Way impact grant makes these partnerships possible.  We talked about statistics regarding child sexual abuse and sexual harm over a lifetime and the impact it has for the victim and their families. She also gave us signs of potential child sexual abuse, talked about risk factors and protective factors and most importantly, how and shy you should always report.  For more information about Collins Center, visit their website: https://www.thecollinscenter.org/    Collins Center is a sexual assault response and advocacy organization that serves Rockingham and Page Counties, the City of Harrisonburg, and surrounding communities. For over thirty years, Collins Center has offered support to victims, survivors, and their loved ones through many programs and services, including sexual assault crisis support and advocacy, prevention and education, and trauma-informed counseling. Our nationally accredited Child Advocacy Center (CAC) works collaboratively with community partners to provide a proactive and thorough response to child victims of abuse and their non-offending caregivers.