Perry-Jackson Child Advocacy Center receives grant from Pinckneyville bank – The Southern

The bank is a member of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago. As a member, the bank was able to apply for a a COVID-19 Relief Grant from Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago.

The grant has a matching opportunity for the bank, which brings the total received by Perry-Jackson Child Advocacy Center to $11,000.

The Perry-Jackson Child Advocacy Center qualified as a social service agency serving children in a rural area that has been negatively affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Officials at First National Bank in Pinckneyville felt that the child advocacy center was a perfect match for this grant opportunity, and Betti Mucha, the child advocacy center’s executive director, agreed.

“It’s what true community bankers do,” David Pirsein, president and CEO of First National Bank, said in an email.

Mucha said the funding will be used to continue the work of the center to serve children through age 18 who have been victims of sexual and/or serious physical abuse, along with children who have witnessed violent crimes.

During the pandemic, the Perry-Jackson Child Advocacy Center is considered an essential service and has remained open to serve this vulnerable population of children and their non-offending family members, Mucha said. He said keeping the staff safe and healthy while still working to maintain the same quality and quantity of services has been a challenge. This grant is going to help relieve some of that stress and keep their services sustainable for the future, according to Mucha.

Those services include the coordination of a team investigation and/or prosecution, conducting forensic interviews in a child-friendly space by a specially trained and peer reviewed professional, referral to mental health providers who specialize in trauma-focused treatment, referral to a child abuse pediatrician, court support, and monthly updates regarding the investigation and/or prosecution from a trained and engaged child advocate.

“Our experience is we saw a tremendous decrease (in requests for services) at first,” Mucha said, referring to the pandemic.

As things have opened up, Mucha said requests have been steady. However, the severity of cases has changed. While the center has always seen cases of serious child abuse, they are seeing “more intense types of abuse.”

For more information, visit www.perryjacksoncac.com.