Childrens Advocacy Centers of Georgia
“THANK YOU!! Thank you for all who participated in our 10th Annual “One Team” Conference on November 3-4, 2016. The speakers, sponsors, vendors and more than 260 participants made it a wonderful success.
See you next year for our two day One Team Conference on October 26-27, 2017 in Savannah.
Amy Boney is the Executive Director of the Lighthouse Children’s Advocacy Center in Americus, Georgia.
CACGA: What is Lighthouse CAC?
Amy Boney: The Lighthouse Children’s Advocacy Center (CAC) is where healing begins for abused children in the Southwestern Judicial Circuit. Lighthouse CAC provides a coordinated, multi-agency approach to the investigation, intervention, and treatment of child abuse.
CACGA: What would you like the community to know about the professionals who work there?
Amy Boney: Employees of the organization are visionaries who hope to make everyone they meet an ambassador for its mission. We envision a world where children belong to strong families rather than live in ‘at risk homes’. We see children playing unencumbered rather than concerned with the threats of ‘stranger danger’. We see the challenges our communities face in rural South Georgia and collaborate to strengthen our work plans and strategies to overcome the statistics. We believe in solid partnerships, strong collaborations and supportive networks.
Brad Ray is our Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director. Brad is the former owner of an advertising and public relations firm for over ten years and co-owner of one of the largest and most successful privately owned college newspapers in the country. Brad, at the age of 23, became a volunteer Guardian ad Litem (Florida’s equivalent to Georgia’s CASA program). In 2007, he received The President’s Call to Service Award, the highest honor bestowed to a volunteer by the White House. He serves on the Advisory Board for the Office of the Child Advocate and the Governing Boards of the National CASA organization and Children’s Advocacy Centers of Georgia. While doing all of this, Brad still has had time to color with one of our 4 year old victims on the floor while she waited to be interviewed. Did I mention he squeezed in earning his MPA last year?
I am our CAC Director and Forensic Interviewer. I have 21 years of experience in the field of sexual assault, 15 years of experience as a CAC Director; extensive experience in the areas of substance abuse, family and child assessments, social and mental health work, forensic interviewing, and child advocacy; a Bachelor and Master’s in Social Work from the University of Georgia and Valdosta State University respectively; a wealth of experience working in rural communities, and is a trained facilitator of Stewards of Children and is currently training in Trauma Focused-Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. I provide forensic interviews, consultations, assessments, testimony, drafts protocols, provides prevention and education workshops and crisis counseling. I also chair Child Fatality Reviews and MDT meetings and frequently drive Brad and Karan crazy. [Read more…]
Amy Economopolous is the Executive Director of the Anna Crawford Children’s Center in Woodstock, Georgia. She has been the executive director since 2000.
CACGA: What is the Anna Crawford Children’s Center and what is its mission?
Amy: The Anna Crawford Children’s Center has transformed our community’s response to child abuse, giving families hope in their darkest moments. The Anna Crawford Children’s Center, located in Woodstock, Georgia, is a private, non-profit organization dedicated to preventing child abuse and neglect; and protecting and serving children and families. Since opening the doors in 1990, our staff has worked together to serve over five thousand families in Cherokee County, allowing them to live safer, healthier, fuller and more rewarding lives. Services are provided in English, Spanish and Portuguese, at no charge to the children and families.
Programs based out of the Anna Crawford Children’s Center include the following:
Child Advocacy Center (CAC) – The CAC program provides a coordinated, multidisciplinary approach to child abuse investigation, intervention and treatment aimed at minimizing trauma and anxiety for child victims and their non-offending caregivers. Services include forensic interviews, individual and group therapy and support sessions for child victims and their non-offending caregivers, victim and family advocacy services, multidisciplinary team case review meetings, and expert testimony. [Read more…]
