About Sexual Harassment Of Any Kind

Every year more and more awareness has been raised regarding sexual abuse of any kind. Studies by David Finkelhor, Director of the Crimes Against Children Research Center, show that 1 in 5 girls and 1 in 20 boys is a victim of child sexual abuse (“Child Abuse”) When we learn about these statistics, several things come to mind. One of them being, how can we help these children that have to experience traumas like this one. Thankfully, there are agencies and organizations that do all the wok they can to make sure these children and their family get the help and resources they need.

This paper aims to inform the reader about one agency located in Miami whose main focus is to assess, treat, and provide tools for children victims of sexual abuse and trafficking.

Agency Profile

The agency that I chose is Kristi House Child Advocacy Center. This agency is located in 1265 NW 12th Avenue Miami, FL 33136 and can be contacted through phone (305)547-6800 or visited in their webpage at www.

kristihouse.org. Due to work schedules and other limitations the interview had to be done over the phone. There where no interruptions on either part, and the total time of the interview did not exceed twenty minutes. Before talking to the social worker, I made the questions available to her, so she had an idea of how the process would go. She was very attentive, interested, and enthusiastic to answer my questions and help me to the best of her ability.

The work with children has always been one that I particularly find very interesting.

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This organization, Kristi House Child Advocacy Center, focuses on that. Working with children that are victims of abuse and their caregivers. I personally believe that the way we help children today will affect who they will be tomorrow, either positively or negatively. Many children in our society go through things children, or anyone for that manner, should go through. It is good to know, that although these things happen, there are agencies like this one that are there to work and help children and their families overcome those obstacles.

This agency has the following Mission statement and Vision respectively “Kristi House provides treatment, advocacy, and coordination of services, within a healing environment, for all child victims of abuse and their families, as well as education and prevention services to end childhood abuse and sex trafficking,” “Kristi House strives to end childhood abuse by healing those who have been victims and breaking the cycle of abuse for future generations.” Kristi House was founded as a non-for-profit in 1995. Later, in 1999, after the number of clients increased significantly, its Child Advocacy Center opened the doors. Today, this agency operates three satellite offices for easier client access. At the same time Kristi House is as a leader among the 828 Child Advocacy Centers in the country. Kristi House’s main facility is located in the health district of Miami. Although this agency started with the intention of helping children who were victims of sexual abuse or trafficking, today, they serve a wider range of children and their families with diverse traumas.

Kristi House is located in places where low-income families are more predominant, in order to help these children and their families have access to help in the case they need it. Two of the three system levels that Kristi House advocacy Center uses to treat clients are micro and mezzo. As the textbook describes, a micro system is one that works with the individual focusing on what goes on the personal level of the client, their emotions, behavior, interests, and goals. Mezzo system level as explained in the book Human Behavior in the Macro Social Environment, refers to the treatment within a small group, Kristi House applies this by treating families and helping them help the children and cope with the trauma (Kirst-Ashman, 2018)

To ensure the best of results when treating clients and their families, Kristi House, offers a wide range of services. One of these services is the Alternative for Families: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (AF-CBT). This therapy’s target is to help children ages 5-17 and their caregivers work through and address concerns such as anger, aggression or lack of discipline. This agency also provides services such as the Child Safety Matters program. This program equips the clients with the essential tools to be used in the cases of cyberbullying, online abuse, and other digital dangers that many children are exposed to on the daily basis. Children with Problematic Sexual Behaviors (PSB) are treated at this agency for children experiencing what is categorized as (PSB).

C-START is a project conducted by the agency that works with children’s sexual-related Traumas, sexual abuse and se trafficking, advocating, responding and treating them. Within the Human Sex Trafficking section there are projects that are put into practice, for example Project Gold, and Project Bold. Other types of therapy and techniques are used to guarantee the best of results for the clients. For every good agency or business in general to work well and meet the needs of their clients, it should first be equipped with good leaders that will guarantee its growth.

The CEO of Kristi House is Claudia C. Kitchens who is one of Kristi House’s earliest board members nearly two decades ago. She has spent her career in Miami as a business leader, a non‐profit administrator and a fund developer. With her work and dedication, she has helped stablish multiple organizations to help the community as well as business. Kristi House has a very competitive board of leader that ensure the quality of service that is offered to the community. Some of the leaders that make this work possible are: Lara Carter, who is the Community Relations & Special Projects Manager, Natalie Brown, MA, who hold the position of Director of Community Relations & Development, Nicole Encalada Donor Relations & Volunteer Coordinator, Maria Clara Harrington, MS, Project GOLD Program Director. Therapist, coordinators, supervisors, specialist, and of course, volunteers are also part of the team (Kristi House, 2017).