By CARL ROTENBERG
Times Herald Staff

EAST NORRITON — They don’t have a permanent home office yet.

The executive director is currently interviewing job applicants for three key treatment positions.

 But Mission Kids has raised about $400,000 for operating expenses and a new home in a short period of time. The Montgomery County-based non-profit will devote its personnel and resources to providing competent intervention and investigation of alleged child abuse in Montgomery County.

The problem of child abuse is substantial in the county, which has 775,000 residents and a reported 600 incidents of child abuse each year, according to a recent report from the Montgomery County Office of Children and Youth.

Currently individual police departments begin the initial police investigation of child abuse complaints. That painful story has to be repeated for doctors, social workers, lawyers and judges which can compound the psychic injury of child abuse.

 Mission Kids will employ a specially trained forensic interviewer who will conduct the first interview while other professionals observe through one-way glass mirrors or a proprietary Internet video feed.   

”They are trained so the questions are age-appropriate and open ended,” said  Abbie Newman, the executive director of Mission Kids. Newman worked for five years as a pediatric nurse and 23 years as a lawyer practicing in Philadelphia and Montgomery County before she was hired to manage Mission Kids.

Child abuse can include inappropriate child touching, molestation, rape, physical abuse or neglect for children up to the age of 18.

Officials at 52 police stations in Montgomery County have agreed to work with Mission Kids. The non-profit will partner with Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and a pediatric medical office in Upper Merion for physical examinations and appropriate mental health referrals for on-going therapy. 

Newman is interviewing several candidates this week for the forensic interviewer position, which will become one full-time position or two part-time positions.  A case coordinator and a victim’s advocate will be hired in the near future.

The board of directors for the non-profit includes Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman, President; Laurie O’Connor, Vice President; Paul Kelly III, Treasurer; Meredith Seigle, Secretary and Tim Cifelli.

The board was debating whether to spend donation dollars on renovations for a building in the Norristown Farm Park but the renovation project was determined to be too expensive. Mission Kids has raised about $200,000 for renovations and about $200,000 for the group’s annual operating budget of $300,000, so far, Newman said.

The group would like to locate in East Norriton because of its central location for clients and police. They already have a temporary office donated by Franklin Realty.

   “This is a very important and exciting program to come to Montgomery County,” she said. “Child advocacy programs came forward in the 1980s, in Pennsylvania. One half of the Pennsylvania counties are served by child advocacy agencies.”

This past weekend a fund raising event was held at the Red Buffalo Ranch in Collegeville. An Oct. 23 fund raiser at the Green Valley Country Club in Lafayette Hill will feature “Mentalist” Gerry McCambridge, a Las Vegas headliner and the executive producer of the TV series “The Mentalist.”

Newman has been pleased to see how many outsiders have volunteered their help or made unsolicited donations.

“What has been gratifying to see, is the groundswell of support. That is the most gratifying thing, she said. “We have had a locksmith, an event coordinator, a cleaning service and a computer installer donate their services. A 12-year-old brought in a bag of coins and dollar bills she raised from a bake sale.”

    “We aim to make our center a national center that people will come to and copy. We plan on being the best.”