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Overcoming the Effects of Sexual Abuse

Child and Family Services' Helping Children Heal program, also known as VOCA (VOCA stands for Victims of Crime Act, the federal legislation that primarily funds the program), is designed to help children and their families heal from sexual abuse.  Helping Children Heal/VOCA provides counseling and a wide variety of therapeutic activities to children, individual support, and community resource referrals to their parents.  Through talking, art therapy, recreation, and peer group initiatives, Helping Children Heal/VOCA helps families on a number of levels, including:

• Learning coping skills/mechanisms
• Moving through and coming to terms with denial, grief and anger
• Reducing stress
• Forming new, healthy relationships
• Building strong support systems
• Decreasing the chances of being victimized again

What You can Expect from Helping Children Heal/VOCA

Helping Children Heal/VOCA provides needs assessments and individual family outreach at home, at school, or other locations.  Services last for as long as necessary and are intended to meet the wide range of needs of the families that have been affected by sexual abuse.  Some of these services may include:

• Building trust
• Increasing self-esteem
• Developing/re-developing social skills
• Resolving victimization/reducing the potential for re-victimization
• Advocating for the child and family within the legal system

Children and their families who live in Grand Traverse, Leelanau, Benzie, Kalkaska, Antrim, Manistee, Missaukee, and Wexford Counties are eligible for assistance from Helping Children Heal/VOCA.  All services are free for as long as they are needed.

This program is generously supported by the Michigan Crime Victims Services Commission through the Federal Crime Victims Fund, U.S. Department of Justice.

Generous local support comes from the Grand Traverse Regional Community Foundation and the Cadillac Area Community Foundation.

For more information about Helping Children Heal/VOCA, please contact Jane Knudsen at 231.946.8975, or email jknudsen@cfsmail.org.