Rebuilding Lives – when child abuse stops and healing begins.

Since 1992, over 63,000 children have walked through the doors of Alliance For Children as part of their child abuse investigation. Yet today, we are preparing for one. One child. One Team. One outcome.

Since our establishment, the mission of Alliance For Children continues to be to protect Tarrant County children from child abuse through teamed investigations, healing services and community education. Our overarching goal is to reduce the trauma of child abuse, which can be life-threatening and severe. Our team delves into the worst cases of child abuse in Tarrant County, including child sexual abuse, child sex trafficking, child pornography victims, severe child physical abuse, neglect, medical child abuse, child fatalities, and witness to violent crimes, including homicides of both adults and children alike.

According to the Texas Demographic Center, by 2050, Tarrant County’s population is expected to grow over 40%. In reflection on the number of children served in recent years, watching current case trends, and the immense future growth in our community, additional cases of severe child abuse are inevitable.

After thoughtful reflection of our growing staff and partner numbers, deep evaluation of our services and the potential elevation of our current programs, Alliance For Children committed to a $15.8 million capital campaign to address our agency’s future in better serving child abuse victims in our community. Expanding physical capacity at our three investigative centers is the first step toward extending services and support to Tarrant County children and families well into the future.

On November 1, 2021, Alliance For Children and our partners moved into a 38,000 square foot renovated building in west Fort Worth. On October 28, 2021, we held a groundbreaking ceremony celebrating the start of a 24,000 square foot addition at our original center in Arlington. Rounding out the three-part project will be a 4,000 square foot addition to our Northeast center set to begin in late 2022.

Each of these expansions will provide the following to our existing programs and services:

Increase Our Capacity to Provide Mental Health Services

With a growing caseload, Alliance For Children currently employs 22 mental health clinicians and contracts with an additional seven. The capital campaign will allow for our mental health services to have dedicated space to create the continuum of care at each location, allowing co-location with our other staff and partners. Each location will have:

• Counseling rooms for individual and group counseling,

• Areas to incorporate the use of art therapy,

• Space to grow the mental health team to keep children off a waiting list for no cost counseling.

Evidence-Based Practices to Serve Child Abuse Victims

Effective teamwork has always been vital to the success of our work to protect children, hold perpetrators accountable, and create healing for families. Through continual growing partnerships in Tarrant County, this campaign will help us accomplish the following:

Space for Growing Partnerships. Each center will accommodate:

Office space for the growing number of detectives and investigators needed for current and future workloads,
Dedicated interrogation rooms with a private entry for suspect interviews and data collection.

Updating Technology Needs. In preparation for more complex cases, we will be improving our data collection methods to create stronger cases leading to more triumphant prosecution. This will be accomplished through:

More efficient sound protected interview rooms,
Updated recording technology to collect victims’ outcries and perpetrators statements,
Creation of evidence collection rooms.

Secure Access to Better Protect Children. No child should be left in a vulnerable state, especially when dealing with the trauma of abuse. As a result, we will implement the following security measures:

Separate entrances for accused perpetrators, to ensure child victims and their protective caregivers are not subjected to any additional trauma. When accused perpetrators arrive for their interviews with law enforcement, they will enter through an entirely different entrance than that which is used for our children and families, regardless of a relationship,
Video monitoring will be utilized in all lobbies, both child-friendly and suspect alike,
Both internal and external access to all buildings will require a keycard.

We are proud of our history of protecting Tarrant County children from abuse, but recognize that we can do better through these improvements. You can continue to make healing a reality for many children for years to come.

Please consider a gift to this campaign which will allow our free programs and services to thrive for generations of Tarrant County children.

Help us Rebuild Lives through our Capital Campaign

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