The George Jones Child Advocacy Centre will celebrate its fifth birthday on March 16 with a community party from 2.30pm to 5.30pm.
Parkerville Children and Youth Care acting chief executive and therapeutic services director Amanda Paton said the centre had greatly improved responses to children in the area that had experienced abuse since it opened in 2011.
“Early in 2008 we realised we were actually doing a lot of work with children in the Armadale area but we didn’t have an office space or presence here,” she said.
“We rented a little room behind the Church Café on Jull Street.
“There was a notion of developing this child advocacy centre model and we began a lot of community consultation in the area and then eventually built this centre.”
She said there were now nearly 600 children, young people, adults and families using the services at the centre.
Several programs and partnerships run from the centre including the Multiagency Investigation and Support Team, which is a partnership between Parkerville, police and several other organisations and agencies.
Ms Paton said the services the centre provided were essential to the area to properly address child abuse. “Without it families would struggle,” she said.
“Experiencing trauma from abuse, whilst it’s common it’s not an everyday occurrence, no one is prepared for it no one knows how to deal with it and nor should they.
“Having services and having people with the right expertise to support families through that process means they can heal and they can go through it with as minimal impact as possible.”
The fifth birthday party will include sausage sizzles, climbing tower, waterslide, games, activities and more.
The party will be held at the centre, 2 Wungong Road, Armadale.
