Montco child advocacy center to get new recording equipment

BLUE BELL The Montgomery County nonprofit that assists in child sex-abuse investigations plans to buy new equipment for recording interviews with $23,000 it will get Thursday.

The Lisa Diener Domestic Violence Foundation will give the Mission Kids Child Advocacy Center its contribution in a ceremony at the center's Blue Bell offices.

Child advocacy centers are meant to ease the court process for children who may been the victims of sexual abuse or serious physical abuse, or who witnessed such acts, said Abbie Newman, Mission Kids executive director.

The donation will replace old equipment used in two rooms - one for older children and one for younger children - where forensic interviews of alleged victims and witnesses are recorded. The new equipment will include cameras and microphones.

"The picture quality will be much better. The sound quality will be even better than it is, and the overall clarity will be better," Newman said.

Recording those interviews is a core part of the mission of Mission Kids.

"The fact that the interviews are recorded means the child does not have to repeat what he or she told us," Newman said. If defense attorneys and prosecutors, for instance, want to know what the child said, they can watch the recording rather than putting the child through more questions.

The Diener foundation was established in 2010, and is based in Ambler.

- Carolyn Davis