children. Today, that support was on full display as we were honored to receive a generous check from the
GFWC Bridgeport Junior Woman’s Club.” Quote and photo taken from Hero’s Haven Facebook page.
By Stephen Smoot
Though Child Abuse Awareness Month will end before most see this week’s edition, awareness of this serious and pervasive problem remains a year round responsibility. Approaching the problem requires a number of facets that include identifying the abuse, creating a safe situation for the child, engaging the offender(s), and preventing further trauma.
Hero’s Haven, explains Patty Saunders, executive director, started as the Harrison County Child Advocacy Center. After showing the effectiveness of its approaches, the service area expanded to include Taylor, Barbour, and Doddridge counties.
Saunders explained how they adopted their name after expansion. The non profit’s Board of Directors decided that keeping the original name was “not comforting to Taylor, Barbour, and Doddridge counties.” During a brainstorming session, one member focused on the idea of “haven” as part of the name.
“Hero’s” comes from that fact that, as Saunders shared “we always tell our staff they are superheroes.” She extends that to include all who work to help victims of child abuse from faithful mandated reporters, to law enforcement, social workers, and others who labor to protect the innocent.
Also, “children are brave to tell their stories,” Saunders explained, adding that “they know that they could lose their home, their family, everything when they tell their story.”
For both the victims and those who protect and advocate for them, “Hero’s Haven is their place.”
Part of protection comes with prevention. And part of prevention comes with understanding the insidious facts about child abuse. As Saunders explains, parents are good at teaching their kids about “stranger danger,” but 90 percent of abuse comes at the hands of someone the child already knows.
“It’s always important to do prevention,” explained Saunders. Hero’s Haven joins with organizations such as D.A.R.E., fire departments, and others to put on safety education events for children of all ages. Hero’s Haven has a “body safety” curriculum that it has tailored to each age group of minors.
Elementary school students learn about “no touch zones” that are described generally as any part of the body covered by a swimsuit. Instruction includes a three step process to teach kids how to get away from the situation while empowering them to understand that no adult has the right to touch inappropriately, no matter what.
Middle school students learn of the danger of inappropriate sharing over social media, as well as solicitation by individual abusers and human trafficking criminals. High school kids hear about appropriate dating behavior.
Saunders shared that these in class presentations have helped some victims to find the courage to come forward and report crimes against them.
The heart of the mission of Hero’s Haven, however, is engaging victims and facilitating telling their story. Possible victims of abuse can come to Hero’s Haven to be interviewed by experienced and compassionate professional advocates for the benefit of Child Protective Services, law enforcement, guardians ad litem, and others with a vested interest in protecting that child.
A victim’s entire “team” can observe the interview and get all the salient facts at the same time. This prevents the child having to endure multiple interviews. On one hand, more than one interview will traumatize the victim again. Additionally, over time memories can fade and result in changes in narrative that may undercut a criminal case.
The child and their family or guardian, if appropriate, will have the help of a family advocate. This individual can connect the victim to supportive and therapeutic services. Also, since in a criminal case the accused has a Constitutional right to confront his or her accuser, the family advocate serves as “a comforting person” to be there for the child through the conclusion of the case.
Hero’s Haven also helps victims access help from the West Virginia Crime Victims’ Compensation Fund.
Providing these services brings a strong positive impact to the lives of victims. Saunders says that the center still has regular contact with victims who were helped in the very first years of the center’s existence.
Additionally, Hero’s Haven holds monthly meetings in each of the four counties served. Along with state and local law enforcement, prosecuting attorneys, and others, the meeting goes over each case so that communication between all parties is efficiently facilitated.
Saunders explained that the caseload has changed in the past 20 years with numbers expanding. She said that the facility took on over 520 new clients in the past fiscal year. The severity of abuse has also worsened as the impacts of addiction and mental illness takes a wider and deeper toll.
One of the worst aspects of abuse is that in some cases those who are abused in childhood later become abusers. Connecting victims with “trauma-focused therapy” helps them to learn positive ways of dealing with what happened to them. Hero’s Haven works to break the cycle of abuse “to give victims all the tools they need to become survivors.”
That all said, however, Saunders praised the Mountain State’s approach to child advocacy. She shared that in out of state trainings in areas such as New York City, it became clear to her that “West Virginia is in the top of the running for child advocacy centers.” When trainers list a set of goals that local child advocacy centers across the country should aspire toward “we hit every one of those.”
Part of the difference in West Virginia comes from the fact that the state’s leadership and culture takes issues of addiction, abuse, and related problems head on. Almost no families have escaped some level of trauma or tragedy. Since, as Saunders says “West Virginia is definitely a community and a family,” talking about the issues meets far fewer barriers than in other areas.
With pressures from the national debt pushing a more frugal approach at the federal level, concerns about federal help do exist. Hero’s Haven, however, proactively applied for a grant from the West Virginia First Foundation that distributes funds from the opioid settlement.
Other support has come from the Bridgeport Junior Women’s Club who donated $107,000 from their 2025 Be the Change Ball. Local businesses also help the center by selling “High-Five Hands” whose proceeds benefit the center.
The United Way of Harrison and Doddridge Counties, as well as the United Way of Tygart Valley also provide much needed support. One way in which they do this is to send volunteers signed up with their organizations to assist with events or other needs since they legally cannot have their own due to privacy laws.
