On a quiet, rural road on the outskirts of Georgetown, a quaint yellow Victorian style house provides a tranquil retreat for children, and a place where their voices can be heard.

The house is home to the Williamson County Children’s Advocacy Center (CAC), a non-profit whose mission is to provide a child-sensitive, safe environment for children up to 17 years of age to report abuse. While the majority of children they treat have been victims of sexual abuse, the center is also for those who have been witnesses to a crime, victims of human trafficking, or come from a domestic violence situation.

“Any time someone has to ask the hard questions, the questions that could re-victimize the child, you definitely you want to bring them here,” said CAC Executive Director Brenda Staples.

Since the first child advocacy center was opened in Huntsville, Ala., 25 years ago, the model has continually grown. Today, there are more than 700 CACs in the United States, and 68 centers in the state of Texas. They grew out of the realization that during the course of an investigation where a child is involved, there is a high possibility that one can re-victimize or re-traumatize the child again, such as when the child is required to relive painful experience through multiple interviews with different agencies.

One of the most important services provided by the Williamson County CAC is the ability to conduct forensically-sound interviews by a trained child development specialist. In 2013, the CAC’s three forensic interview specialists conducted 686 forensic interviews, which are then used by law enforcement and child protective services.

“They need non-leading, forensically-sound questions in a manner that does not give (children) any extra information,” Staples said. “You don’t want to give a 5-year-old terminology that, not only does he not understand, but it’s inappropriate for us to do that. We want to be child friendly, we don’t want it to be cold and scary like a police station very easily could be.”

The interview rooms are designed so that the child and a single interviewer are in one room, and representatives from law enforcement and CPS are able to watch and hear the interview in real time in a separate observation room next door. An average interview lasts about 45 minutes.

The CAC also provides trauma-focused counseling services for children at no cost to families. Most children spend an average of 16 weeks in counseling.

There is also a specially-designed room that allows a licensed sexual assault nurse examiner to conduct non-invasive sexual assault examinations with the child’s consent. They perform up to 60 examinations per year.

“When children are talking to a nurse, they can get all their questions answered by that professional,” Staples said. “There’s a lot of comfort in that. Young ladies need to ask questions that they would never ask their moms.”

The CAC also serves as a neutral gathering place for all law enforcement agencies in Williamson County, Child Protective Services, Hope Alliance, the District Attorney’s office and the County Attorney’s office. In the beginning stages of a case, representatives from each agency can meet and make sure everyone is on the same page and that the interests of the child are being protected.

Staples stressed that though the CAC works with local law enforcement, the center is a non-profit and completely neutral.

“Our job is not to work for the investigators but to work on behalf of the child to meet the needs of the investigation – to find out the truth,” she said.

Staples said cases involving childhood sexual assault are extremely complex and difficult, sadly, due to the fact that in a very high percentage of cases, the perpetrator is someone the child knows and loves.

“When it’s someone that has been working with the child or playing with the child or parenting the child, most of the time the child doesn’t necessarily recognize that anything is out of the ordinary,” Staples said. “So many people ask, ‘Why didn’t the child tell?’ My answer is, ‘My mom made me eat green beans every night of my life and did I ever think to go tell the teacher she’s making me do it? The answer is no, that’s just what we did.’ They don’t know any different. That’s why there’s not this overwhelming outcry. And it’s somebody they really love and trust.”

On the flip side, she said the CAC is important in cases where a person has been wrongfully accused, such as in a custody battle, when one parent makes allegations against the other or coaches the child to make false statements.

“When you get a professional interviewing a child, the truth is going to come out,” Staples said. “The protection for an ill-accused adult is the advocacy center. These guys do it day in day out — 700 interviews in a year.

“For everybody’s sake, we must be neutral,” she added. “Our job is to be the advocate for the child. There are plenty of cases that it’s determined that nothing happened to the child, and those are good days for us. All we want is for the child to be in a safe environment and be able to tell the truth.”

For more information about the WCCAC, visit www.wilcocac.org.