Children and teens in red capes and superhero poses on brightly-colored flyers and pamphlets are making their way to families at resource fairs and special events scheduled throughout Lake County this month.
The eye-catching art is part of the Blue Kids campaign that takes place in April, during Child Abuse Prevention Month. Its purpose is to get the message out that children are not alone.
Community outreach is just one of the ways the Lake County Children’s Advocacy Center (LCCAC) works to fight child abuse. The center is the first of its kind in Illinois.
It operates with a multidisciplinary team that includes law enforcement and the Department of Children and Family Services, victim advocates, forensic interviewers and mental health therapists, all under one roof. This model allows for all of these entities to collaborate while gathering information and collecting the evidence they need to prosecute those who harm children.
“I think sometimes there’s a misconception that the goal is prosecution, and certainly that’s important,” said LCCAC executive director Carrie Flanigan. “Protecting young victims’ mental and physical health is also hugely important in their journey to healing.”
Flanigan said that work used to look much different.
Before the LCCAC was founded in 1987, abused children had to tell their stories several times to different officials at police stations and hospitals. That not only further traumatized the child victims, but it also made the collection of evidence more difficult.
“Imagine a child, in a state of trauma, having to answer questions over and over,” Flanigan said. “That story can look a bit different every time it’s told, not because the child is lying but because of the way a question is asked. It could be leading.”
At the advocacy center, a forensic interviewer speaks with the child victim in a private room equipped with a camera while the team is in another room watching the video feed and collecting evidence needed for their part in the case. They work collaboratively to decide what the next steps of the process are for each victim.
“Every discipline has their own leadership,” Flanigan said. “There are a lot of people at the table who have years of experience in their field, with the common goal to protect the children.”
But the center’s staff isn’t sitting on its laurels. There’s more to do.
An additional tool in the toolbox will be an on-site medical center that Flanigan says will be a game-changer.
Through a partnership with Rosalind Franklin University and a $1 million state grant secured by state Sen. Julie Morrison, D-Deerfield, as seed money for the launch, the Rosalind Franklin University Children’s Advocacy Center Medical Clinic will be the first such facility in the state that’s approved by the Illinois Department of Public Health.
“We’re pioneering this model,” said Jeff Espina, RFU’s vice president of clinical services.
Espina said he jumped at the opportunity to partner with the advocacy center’s project because it falls in line with the university’s mission to provide better healthcare to populations in need. He hopes other medical and learning institutions will see this as a blueprint.
The on-site medical clinic is significant to the advocacy center’s work because it will allow it to break a roadblock that’s been keeping hundreds of children from potentially getting the treatment they need.
Flanigan said officials can only make recommendations that a child gets taken to a hospital. It’s up to their guardian to seek that medical care.
According to the LCCAC’s annual report, 587 sexual abuse cases were reported in 2023. Out of those, only 120 medical exams were tracked.
There are several reasons why people might not seek medical care or a follow-up. The subject of sexual abuse is complicated, Espina said.
In 2024, 70% of the cases the LCCAC saw were related to sexual abuse.
Flanigan said that due to an Illinois law that states sexual assault victims are to be rendered medical forensic services, the default recommended hospitals have been those that have those types of services available all the time, and those are out of the county, such as Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago.
“To have this immediate care for the victims here is monumental,” Flanigan said.
Officials expect the medical clinic will be operating within weeks.
Another change in the works is a move to a bigger space. LCCAC program director Sara Hammock said they are outgrowing the Gurnee building that currently houses the center. That project is still in its infancy, officials said.
Parent support groups, art therapy and family resource events are part of the activity at the center. Most recently, the Blue Kids campaign was hosted there.
The lineup of Blue Kids events across the county that are open to all residents includes:
*April 11 — Art Impact Brushwood Center at Ryerson Woods (Registration required). 10 a.m.-1 p.m. 21850 Riverwoods Road, Riverwoods.
*April 11 — Avon Township, Community resource event. 10 a.m.-noon. 433 E. Washington St., Round Lake Park.
*April 12 — Round Lake Beach Easter Egg Hunt. 8:30 a.m.-11:30 a.m. 2004 Municipal Way, Round Lake Beach.
*April 15 — Vernon Area Public Library. 4-6 p.m. 300 Olde Half Day Road, Lincolnshire.
*April 16 — Family Night with Art Impact. Round Lake Beach. Civic Center (Registration required). 5:30-7:30 p.m. 2007 N. Civic Center Way, Round Lake Beach.
*April 24 — Warren Newport PubLic Library. Book reading. 4:30-5:30 p.m. 224 O’Plaine Road, Gurnee.
*April 24 — Mano A Mano. Healthy Families Program. 10 a.m.-1 p.m. 6 E. Main St., Round Lake Park.
*April 24 — Blu Violet Boutique. 11 a.m.-3 p.m. 410 N. Milwaukee Avenue, Libertyville.
*April 25 — Wintrust Banks, 8 Locations: Waukegan, Lake Forest, Wauconda, Barrington, Gurnee, Libertyville, Antioch, Grayslake. 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m.
*April 26 — Lincolnshire Police Department, Family community event. 9 a.m.- 2 p.m. Olde Half Day Road, Lincolnshire.