Over the Rainbow: Young victims regain control at new, improved children's advocacy center

Franklin County’s new and improved children's advocacy center was built around the needs of kids and teens who go there to share the details of the worst experiences of their young lives.

At the Over the Rainbow Children's Advocacy Center, children who are victims of sexual abuse or severe physical abuse talk to a forensic interviewer about what happened to them while law enforcement officers and others watch and listen from another room. It is one of the first steps in a potential criminal case and in a victim's journey toward healing mentally and emotionally.

It’s a process that requires special care.

Over the Rainbow is among 41 child advocacy centers in Pennsylvania and also serves Fulton County, Dave Rush, a former detective with the Franklin County District Attorney's Office who now works for Children's Advocacy Centers of Pennsylvania, previously told the Public Opinion.

Around 270 minors each year — anywhere from 20 to 30 each month — are referred to the child advocacy center, according to Executive Director Becky Voss. The busiest year was 2019, when the center received 315 referrals.

After operating for nearly a decade on South Main Street at the very south end of the borough, Over the Rainbow moved in February to its new home at 40 N. Second St. It's roughly double the size of the former facility.

The new, but much older, building gave Voss and her team the opportunity to renovate the facility to best suit the delicate work they do.

The former building was mostly an open space that was not always conducive to the work being done there. The new facility gives young victims a better sense of privacy.

“We respect the kids that come here and respect that they don’t want people to hear all this stuff they are talking about, that they may have shame or embarrassment about, and we want to make sure that who they are choosing to tell is who is hearing,” said Voss, who is also one of two on-staff forensic interviewers. "We had to keep in mind where we wanted the interview room in relation to the other rooms and where the family room is. We really selected where to put things based on that.”

It also includes a new space the old facility lacked: A teen waiting room.

Families get support to navigate crisis

Families entering the center pass through a foyer and welcoming area on their way to a large waiting room. With big windows, comfortable couches and a variety of toys, it looks like a family room found in many homes.

Families and caregivers stay here while a child is in the interview room. They spend the time speaking with a family advocate about how they and the child are doing and what they can expect moving forward in the investigative process.

They also learn about trauma and how it may affect the child’s behavior.

“A lot of families that come here might be in crisis or really just beginning to process what has happened," Voss said.

Help for the victims and their families doesn’t end at the child advocacy center. They also receive referrals for counseling.

“It’s making sure we are connecting kids to that healing process. This is the very beginning of that,” Voss said. “Therapy is one of the biggest referrals we can make.”

Over the Rainbow has agreements with a few agencies that will prioritize juvenile victims to get them in as fast as possible.

Victims take back control during interview process

A referral to the child advocacy center typically comes after a police department receives a report of possible sexual abuse of a child, either from a citizen or Children and Youth Services. The child usually comes to Over the Rainbow five to 10 days later.

“We try to get the kids in pretty quickly, especially the younger ones,” Voss said, adding the center can serve kids as young as 3. It depends on how well a child can communicate, but the team will work with the caregiver to accommodate a young child’s verbal quirks.

A child largely has the opportunity to lead their own experience at the child advocacy center.

Franklin County grand jury: Constable thought he could get away with sexually exploiting troubled victims

Before the interview begins, Voss or another forensic interviewer shows the child three cameras and microphones in the room and explains that a few people in the room next door will be watching and listening to them talk.

The group typically includes the police officer on the case, a member of the district attorney's office, and, if the case meets certain criteria, a CYS caseworker. The child gets the chance to meet these people, while an older child usually already knows about them.

Some kids may even decide they don't want to talk that day — and that's OK, Voss said.

"It's another way we can give that control back to them and give them that support in terms of, well, we're gonna be honest with you and we're gonna tell you what's going on," she said.

A key thing to know about the Over the Rainbow team's work is that they only interview minors to get their story, which is one of the first steps in a child sex abuse investigation. They do not decide if charges should be filed or otherwise participate in the investigation going forward, Voss said, but the interviewer may testify if the case goes to trial.

Sometimes, a child may say nothing inappropriate happened to them and their words will not support the allegations. It is still up to law enforcement to make decisions.

Gio's Room will serve teen victims

Faced with toys and the "over the rainbow" branding, teenage victims can feel infantilized at the child advocacy center — but that will soon change.

Giovanni Kelly was 15 when he went to Over the Rainbow in 2021 to share the details of how a woman his mother's age coerced him into sex on multiple occasions over three months. At first quiet and reserved, he took it upon himself to return weeks later to reveal how his abuser's threats made him feel trapped and hurt his mental health. Rush, the detective on the case, said he was like a different person the second time.

The teen room was Giovanni's idea.

“He said, ‘I really felt childish when I was here, and it felt like a place for babies and kids, and I didn’t think I should be here.’ He said we should have a teen waiting room," Rush said.

Giovanni's story: Sex abuse, not 'American Pie': Giovanni Kelly's legacy lives on and will help other victims

Currently an empty room steps away from the family waiting room, the space will be designed as a teen hangout to honor Giovanni's legacy.

At 17, Giovanni died by suicide on Dec. 30, 2022. In notes to loved ones and his abuser, a Waynesboro woman named Jenna Beckner, he blamed Beckner and the abuse for pushing him over the edge.

Voss, who conducted Giovanni's forensic interviews, said he serves as an inspiration to other victims who fear being judged. Giovanni dealt with peers and adults downplaying his abuse because he was a teen boy and Beckner was a grown woman.

"I think that if anyone can see the courage that it took for him to be able to get here and be able to come back again and share more — it's always humbling to make sense of the courage that it takes to overcome all of that, to overcome all the voices he was hearing and the things he reading and things people were saying," she said. "To overcome that and still talk about what he went through I think is, for any other child or teenager or male victim who sees that, I think that would help them realize it's OK to talk about this and there are people who will support me and listen to me and hear me."

Beckner is now serving three years of probation following her release from prison in August after serving almost 17 months of a one- to three-year sentence, according to court records. As part of her guilty plea to felony counts of statutory sexual assault and corruption to minors, Beckner's sentence was significantly less than is typical for the charges because Giovanni requested leniency to lessen the impact on her family, Rush previously told the Public Opinion.

More funding is needed to complete Gio's Room and some other features at the new facility. Donations are appreciated at overtherainbowcac.org/support/.

Awkward talks promote body safety

It might get awkward, but talking to kids about their bodies, inappropriate touching and what to do if another person makes them uncomfortable just might prevent a scenario that leads to a trip to Over the Rainbow or another children's advocacy center.

Over the Rainbow runs a "body safety" program in Chambersburg and Waynesboro school districts for kindergarten through 12th grade, Voss said. The facility's community educator teaches age-appropriate lessons to help kids identify when interactions are not OK and who they should tell when they feel uncomfortable with something that happened to them.

"It's important that we're teaching them the parts of their bodies that are not OK for people to touch and what to do if that should happen. What is that response, right? You go you tell someone about that happening," Voss said.

Students in middle and high school also get lessons on internet safety, cyberbullying, sexting and other topics they will probably encounter.

But parents should be the first line of defense — or better yet, offense. Parents should teach their kids the real names of the parts of their bodies and refrain from using other terms, starting at a young age, Voss said. This lesson is not part of the body safety program in schools.

"We teach parents and family members, we're telling them, teach your children the names, the anatomical names of the parts of their body so that if something happens and they do disclose to someone, that that person knows what they're talking about and they don’t just dismiss it," she said.

Parents may feel awkward talking to their kids about their bodies and sex, but Voss has learned through her years of experience talking to underage victims of sexual assault that kids usually don't feel the same.

“A lot of times it's us needing to get over that," she said.

Amber South can be reached at asouth@publicopinionnews.com

This article originally appeared on Chambersburg Public Opinion: Survivors focus of Franklin County Children's Advocacy Center design