Newton heads fund-raiser

Entertainer Wayne Newton and a local organization dedicated to children's rights are hosting a private gathering expected to raise $1.1 million for a new Child Haven building.

The fund-raiser next Wednesday at the Las Vegas Hilton hotel-casino's Verona Villa is the first major event sponsored by the Children's Advocacy Alliance. Among its members are individuals who have served in Clark County's court-appointed special advocate program. Newton frequently has given both money and time to local children's causes.

The money raised next week will be used for a new administration building on the county-run Child Haven campus at 701 N. Pecos Road. The building also will include expanded space for Child Haven's Sexual Abuse Investigative Team. Child Haven is a temporary shelter for abused and neglected children, but the campus has been plagued by overcrowding and a tight budget.

When local voters approved the 1996 justice bond, $40 million of the $120 million generated by the initiative was earmarked for the county's Family and Youth Services, including Child Haven. But Adrienne Cox, assistant director of the department, said that because Family and Youth Services had about $46 million in needs, some budget items such as the new building didn't receive funds.

Donna Husted, vice president of the alliance, said her organization believes the proposed new Children's Advocacy Center building will help increase the number of child-abuse prosecutions. That's because the building will provide space for professionals involved in every aspect of child-abuse investigations.

"It will also really help the kids because they won't have to go through their story over and over again," Husted said.

Many members of the investigative team, such as health care professionals, Metro Police and counselors, are now scattered throughout the community. Because of gaps in communication and logistics among team members, some child-abuse cases fall through the cracks, Cox said.

"The new building will be more child-friendly and victim-friendly," Cox said. "I'm really grateful that the alliance, which really wants to help kids, has come forward."

Plans are to construct the new building, which will total more than 30,000 square feet, in two phases beginning in November. The first phase, about 12,000 square feet, is intended for the investigative team and will replace the 1,200 square feet now in use.

The expanded space will include a medical suite with two examination rooms; a therapeutic suite with counseling rooms for young children, teens, families and groups; offices for sexual-abuse investigators; and work space for police, attorneys, victim advocates and volunteers.

The team conducted more than 700 interviews at the facility last year.

"Right now we don't have the space for effective therapeutic services, and it's not sound-proof," Cox said. "We're stumbling all over each other, which impacts the child-friendly part of it."

The existing administration building at Child Haven will be leveled and replaced by the second phase of construction, which ought to be completed by November 2000. This phase will enable Child Haven to place more of its administrators and services under one roof. DMJM, a Phoenix company with offices in Las Vegas, will serve as the architect.

The Children's Advocacy Center is actually a name taken from a successful team approach to sexual-abuse investigations that began in Huntsville, Ala. That spawned the National Network of Children's Advocacy Centers, which certified the county's investigative team in 1994.

archive