Carson City Sheriff’s Capt. Craig Lowe and Jan Marson, an occupational therapist and local philanthropist, launched the Carson City Rural Child Advocacy Center.
Photo by Jessica Garcia.
Plans continue for the Carson City Rural Child Advocacy Center’s official launch. To help make its resources fully available to children and families, its supporters have partnered with the Carson City Sheriff’s Office in a fundraising drive to match up to $250,000 in donations by Dec. 31 this year to assist victimized children and their families or caregivers.
Philanthropist Jan Marson said the CCRCAC is currently in a soft launch in Carson City’s Norcross House that was restored. To date, the center’s forensic interviewer has held 27 interviews with children and their caregivers since July, she told the Appeal.
“Back in July, we had a two-day retreat with partners from different counties and activities and different types of listening,” Marson said. “From that, we’ve had a really high-quality interviewer and we started asking if she could the interviews, and she’s done 27 interviews. That’s a lot.”
She estimated once the center is fully established, the center will be capable of conducting 100 to 150 interviews a year.
“I don’t know, it could very well be more once the (sheriff’s) department know there’s a resource, but the Carson City Sheriff’s Office is our best friend,” she said. “They’ve been really great because they reached out knowing we needed this and they’re just really awesome people.”
The CCSO in 2023 first called for a child advocacy center in Carson to help investigate and prosecute child abuse cases, but the centers also treat children for the trauma caused from the crime they witness or experience. Washoe County currently helps to partner and serve children in the rural areas that do not have access to a local center, an option for which Marson is grateful.
“We’re doing a lot of due diligence,” she said. “Historically, there’s been a lot of waiting for getting people’s cases through the system. Sometimes systems aren’t talking to each other people or they aren’t getting the mental services upfront that they need or even information. We see that as a real need, and we can provide some of that support and feeling of hope.”
The fundraiser will be an opportunity to get the message out that the CCRCAC is a preventative resource for some of these crimes, Marson said, and possibly to assist in the charges of the offenders.
“It’s shortening the time so you’re going get more convictions, and that’s really something positive for the whole conviction.”
Marson said she comes from a law enforcement family and pays attention to the issues and needs impacting police officers.
“They’re good human beings,” she said. “They’re under a lot of stress.
The goal to raise $250,000 by Dec. 31 is a goal, not a deadline, but Marson said she hopes the community will join its effort.
“Our goal is to bring best practices to the center,” she said.