Deirdre's House

The goal of Deirdre's House is to ensure that though a child victim's life may be altered by the abuse that they have suffered, their life will not be forever defined by that abuse.

We provide law enforcement the child -friendly environment necessary to gather the information that is essential to bring perpetrators to justice, while not re-traumatizing an already traumatized child.

in addition, Deirdre's House provides child victims with critical medical and clinical counseling services they need to recover, heal from and process the trauma they have suffered in a healthy way so that they can go on to lead successful, happy lives.

Through our clinical counseling program we give child victims and there non-offending caregivers the tools they need to not only help the child recover from the trauma they have suffered but to prevent them from being re-victimized.

To accomplish our goals Deirdre's House provides all of the following free of charge:

A child-centered, non-traumatizing environment with state-of-the art forensic interviewing rooms & digital recording equipment for law enforcement to interview child victims. By digitally recording the forensic interview, a child only has to tell their story once, protecting them from the stress of telling their story over and over again.

Clinical Counseling-both individual and group, in English and Spanish, that allows the child victims to process the trauma they have suffered, prevent re-victimization, and heal.

A site where child victims to be medically examined/treated & prepared for trial.

Outreach & Education to promote child abuse prevention and reporting.

Scholarship programs that provide funding for child victims to attend summer camp, extracurricular activities, and emergency needs to allow a child victim to regain some of the childhood they lost to abuse and to just be a kid again.

Deirdre's House has a highly trained and experienced staff including 4 clinical counselors, 2 of whom are bi-lingual, that specialize in treating childhood trauma, leadership that has provided over 18 years of guidance, an assistant director who is bi-lingual, and two child advocates that are bi-lingual.

Our innovative programs and highly experience staff make us the model child advocacy center in the region.

In 2021, we provided services to child victims in over 2800 child visits. Since opening our doors in 1996, we have provided services to child victims for over 42,000 child visits. Deirdre's House continues to be the model child advocacy center in the region. We have partnered with a bi-lingual psychiatrist to provide psychiatric evaluations and medication monitoring to child victims in need of these mental health supports. Our community education program called "Game of Life" educates high school students regarding abuse and/or neglect and about social service resources in our community.

In 2022, as schools resume in-person instruction, we hope to be able to expand our critical services to more child victims and to delivery training to more students, teachers, staff, and parents. We are also actively working to serve more child victims through our medical program.