Dunebrook was started 28 years ago by a group of individuals who did not want children to be interviewed multiple times and revictimized by the system that was trying to protect them.
The building itself sits on what was once a convicted child molester’s house. The courts ordered the individual to give his property to Dunebrook and the house has since been remodeled into a building that houses the Children’s Advocacy Center (CAC)’s many prevention programs.
Dunebrook’s CAC struggled for many years to start a
multidisciplinary team and to encourage agencies bring children to Dunebrook to be interviewed. Five years ago, the center only saw 70 children per year. It was with a lot of hard work and many meetings that police agencies, Department of Child Services, and the prosecutor’s office began to see the value in having children come to the Child Advocacy Center to be interviewed.
The team has attends trainings together, has monthly meetings,
seeks out advice from each other and has grown to respect each others’ professionalism and responsibilities in handling cases. Today the CAC conducts interviews for the Department of Child Services as well as any county or state or branch of law enforcement that needs their services. The center currently sees about 250 children each year serving LaPorte, Porter, Starke and Pulaski counties.
In addition, the CAC conducts Body Safety, a child molestation prevention program for elementary school aged children serving around 8,000 students a year. Along with Body Safety, Dunebrook has an adult child molestation prevention program called Stewards of Children.
To support its programming Dunebrook holds many fundraising events throughout the year such as Dragon Boat races, the annual Gala, test driving Lincolns and a golf outing.
