The Family Advocacy Center of Northern Minnesota, which opened about one year ago, had the opportunity this week to serve as a mentor for an Australian child protection agency.
The Family Advocacy Center is a collaboration of the Red Lake Band of Chippewa and non-Indian governments and private entities to help victims of abuse. The center serves all citizens of northern Minnesota, including residents of the Red Lake, Leech Lake and White Earth nations. The center, located at North Country Regional Hospital, is a hospital-based, culturally sensitive center established for the primary purpose of providing specialized physical and mental health treatment to the victims of child abuse, domestic abuse and rape.
It also provides forensic interviews of victims, witnesses and non-offending family members, as well as mental health assessments and treatment for victims and their family members.
On Tuesday, Natalie Hall, manager of the child interview unit for the Western Australia Department of Community Development, traveled to Bemidji to learn about the Family Advocacy Center. Hall is traveling on a Churchill Fellowship with her husband, Andrew. Bemidji was one of the couple's stops at various child protection agencies in their nine-week tour, which includes sites in the United States, Canada, Sweden, Poland and Great Britain.
Hall said Bemidji, as the regional center for three American Indian reservations, deals with issues common to her area.
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Based in Perth, Western Australia, her agency serves a widespread geographical area occupied with Australian indigenous people, many of whom face poverty, alcoholism and other social problems.
"We have very remote parts of Western Australia and a lot of aboriginal people," Hall said.
She connected with the Family Advocacy Center through the Midwest Resource Center.
One of the aspects of the Family Advocacy Center Hall noted is the cooperation among various governments, law enforcement and other entities without duplicating services available through other agencies.
For example, said Anne Sand, the center's new director, said the Family Advocacy Center doesn't do case management because there are other agencies performing that function.
Hall said child protection entities in Western Australia are beginning to work more closely together, too, and she sees the Bemidji center as a model for such collaboration.
The center allows abused children and others to be interviewed in a welcoming environment close to home. Previously, victims had to travel to the Twin Cities to present their cases to law enforcement officials.
Hall said the aboriginal people her agency works with are often isolated because roads become impassable during the hot, wet season.
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"The other challenge is to get staff to go and live in those areas," she said.
The Family Advocacy Center focuses first on treating the victims' physical and mental health, then on gathering evidence.
"Our goal here is to gather data that can be used in prosecutions," said Sand.
