Demand for Child Advocacy Increases in State

  West Virginia’s Children Advocacy Centers are seeing an increase in the number of children needing services.

A new report says the number of children served by the state’s 20 centers increased by 14.6 percent to 3,294 during the 2014-2015 fiscal year.

Advocacy centers treat victims of both physical and sexual abuse, as well as children who witness violent crime or are mistreated in other ways. They work to hold perpetrators accountable while getting those children started on a path toward healing.

Monday’s report by the West Virginia Child Advocacy Network says 75 percent of the children served during the past fiscal year were under the age of 13. Fifty-three percent of the alleged offenders were a parent or other family member.