KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Child Protection Center in Kansas City is seeing a greater demand this winter. It comes following a spike in violence against children across the metro.
Lisa Mizell, the center’s CEO said in January the organization has received 70 referrals. She told FOX 4 the group will see a record number of children this month.
The group interviews children who are victims of abuse, hoping the information it gathers will help put a criminal behind bars.
“If there’s things they want to tell us that they haven’t told mom and dad get they know this is a safe place to do it,” Mizell said. “It gives some control to the child about what the outcome is because they know what we’re using the interview to accomplish.”
Mizell said the group always sees a spike in children during the winter, but this season surpasses many recent ones. The goal of the center, she said, isn’t justice to provide justice for the victim but it aims to cut down on the amount of times a child has to tell their traumatic story of abuse.
In 2014 the center saw 803 children from the metro.
“I think this is a problem we can solve but it’s going to take the whole community to do it,” Mizell said.
