CO-LOCATION UPDATE
The Case For Co-Location In Cases Of Child Sexual Abuse

Child Sexual Assault: Too Often An Unknown Evil

Most sexually abused children never come to the attention of authorities. Often they show no physical signs of abuse, no bruises or scars. The mental and emotional abuse they suffer at the hands of their abusers, who are usually known to them, usually keeps them silent. Their own feelings of shame, fear and confusion prevent most child sexual abuse victims from ever seeking help.

The true number of sexually abused children in Philadelphia cannot be known. Most of these children will never have the chance to tell their stories and get the help they need. Even fewer will ever have their days in court, to see their abusers punished.

For the children who are identified, the immediate pressing needs are safety, comfort and reassurance. Unfortunately, children are often unintentionally subjected to further trauma from the intervention system itself. Well-meaning strangers repeatedly question them, often in cold, clinical or impersonal institutional settings. As a result, children often feel fear, confusion, and a sense of intimidation.

When allegations of sexual abuse of a child are made, the law often requires a dual investigation – in Philadelphia by the Department of Human Services (DHS) and the Police Department Special Victims Unit (SVU). If the investigation produces sufficient evidence that a crime has been committed, the District Attorney steps in to prosecute the case. Philadelphia also has many separate agencies that provide medical, legal and social services to the victims of child abuse and their parents or guardians.

With so many different players, the process is stressful and time-consuming for the child and his/her family. At the same time, the professionals who are part of the process find it inefficient, fragmented and duplicative. During an investigation, it isn’t unusual, when there is no advocacy center, for families and victims to undergo multiple interviews in various settings with little coordination.

Philadelphia Children’s Alliance:
The Link Between The Child And Myriad Professionals

The Philadelphia Children’s Alliance (the Alliance) facilitates a team approach to investigation and intervention services for sexually abused children by fulfilling a critical linchpin role. The Alliance brings together the necessary players from multiple public and private agencies to form a single multi-disciplinary team. The Alliance’s service model is based on a child-centered approach to tackling a most difficult enterprise: the investigation of sexual abuse. The Alliance’s approach is designed to lessen stress, reduce the number of interviews the child must endure, and promote communication and collaboration among agencies.

The Alliance serves as the primary point of contact between the child (and his/her family) and the service network. The Alliance benefits children and families by providing a safe, comfortable, private, and child-friendly environment with a strong support structure. The Alliance benefits investigators with efficiency of scheduling, quality investigations, and training to increase their skill levels.

In sum, the Alliance’s portfolio of services includes:
• Joint law enforcement/child protective services interviews
• Forensic interviews and evaluations
• Court accompaniment for victims
• Crisis counseling for non-offending parents and guardians
• Support groups for caretakers
• Self-esteem groups for children
• Multidisciplinary team training
• An Information Resource Center
• Referrals for therapy and other services
• Case review meetings with multi-disciplinary team members
• Case tracking and ongoing support for families

The Alliance’s team approach results not only in fewer repetitive interviews but also more effective interviews. Sex abuse rarely leaves physical evidence, so most of the evidence in these cases must be gleaned from the child’s testimony. Research suggests that they can be reliable testifiers, but when there are multiple, often emotionally wrenching interviews it becomes difficult to construct reliable testimony. With coordination provided by the Alliance, interviews yield more accurate and consistent evidence, making it easier and more likely that in-depth information will be elicited and, moreover, that it will happen on a timely basis.

A Greater Level Of Collaboration Is Needed For Child Victims Of Sexual Assault

Currently in Philadelphia, the DHS receives between 140 and 180 reports of child sexual abuse each month. Both DHS and the Police SVU are required to investigate these reports. However, due to barriers to collaboration encountered by DHS and the Police Department, not all of these dual investigations are conducted using the collaborative, cross-disciplinary intervention process established by and available through the Alliance. Barriers to collaboration experienced by DHS, the Police Department and other key players in child sexual assault investigations stem from these agencies’ diverse administrative practices and structures, case assignment processes, timing of investigations, incompatible information management systems, and the physical demands of collaboration from widely separated offices in inconvenient locations.

In other major cities across the country, children’s advocacy centers like the Philadelphia Children’s Alliance have played a pivotal and successful role in enabling different agencies and individuals to overcome barriers to collaboration on child sexual assault investigations. Among the steps taken in other locales, the single most effective method used by child advocacy centers to forge and institutionalize collaboration is the physical co-location of the public and private agencies that are involved. An article published in The Philadelphia Inquirer underscores the need for Philadelphia to follow the lead of other cities: “Long-term, the city needs a state-of-the-art facility shared by the police and the welfare investigators who handle child sex-abuse cases. That would be a fitting cause around which to rally private-sector help…” .

Taking the Alliance’s Role to the Next Level: Increasing Collaboration, Communication and Co-location Among Child Sexual Assault Resources

To date, the Children’s Alliance has achieved an unprecedented level of cooperation and coordination among representatives from Philadelphia’s legal, social service, law enforcement, and medical communities. Building on its expertise and success to date, the Alliance now stands ready to forge an even greater level of collaboration, maximizing its role as the linchpin for a complex and critical network of resources for child victims of sexual assault.

Over the next 3 years, the Alliance will implement a multi-faceted effort designed to ensure that in the long-term, child sexual assault investigations in Philadelphia are conducted in the most efficient, effective and, above all, child-beneficial manner possible. The Alliance will work closely with public and private stakeholders to achieve several objectives, one of which is key:

Mirroring successful efforts in other major urban centers, co-locate the Alliance’s operations with the Philadelphia Police Department’s Special Victims Unit. The Alliance is working to move into the same building as the Philadelphia Police Department’s Special Victims Unit and is currently pursuing $1,000,000 in public and private philanthropic funding to renovate and fit-out a two-floor space within the Temple University-owned Episcopal Hospital building in North Philadelphia.

Benefits of Co-Location

Model programs in other cities have demonstrated dramatic improvements in the provision of services to children and their families when the required yet disparate service providers are co-located within one physical site. They report multiple benefits, such as increased capacity to provide additional services, faster response times, and more comprehensive and effective investigations. The opportunity to communicate directly in a neutral setting leads to more child, family and professional benefits as well as increased community awareness and responsiveness.

Co-located agencies report professional and administrative benefits resulting from shared physical space. With additional co-workers, personnel have new expertise available to improve the quality and efficiency of their work. Through the joint use of meeting rooms, waiting areas, conference rooms and other common areas, agencies achieve economies of scale and improve morale. And with combined resources, agencies provide more staff training and increase overall job satisfaction.


Against this backdrop, the Alliance is proud that it is moving toward the first step in the co-location process by forging a co-location agreement with the City of Philadelphia. Currently the city is examining its resources to determine the degree to which it will be able to facilitate the move to a new location and beter services for Philadelphia's sexually abused children.

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