CAP credited for helping children in Post trial | News, Sports, Jobs – Observer Today

When five children testified in Chautauqua County Court during the Dustin Post trial, it was one of the first trials that had children testify what had happened to them.

A jury found Post guilty on Feb. 3 on six counts of sexually abusing children. District Attorney Jason Schmidt credits the Child Advocacy Program for helping the children in both processing the abuse and being able to share their stories.

According to its website, CAP's mission is to “end child abuse in Chautauqua County. When abuse occurs, CAP coordinates a community response to bring healing, hope, and justice to these children and families.”

Kayleah Feser, a trauma therapist with CAP and who supervises Chautauqua County's anti-human trafficking initiative, was in the courtroom during Post's trial. She talked about their organization's purpose.

“We believe that all children and youth deserve to live, love, learn and thrive free of abuse, violence, and exploitation,” she said.

To that end, they work with a number of different agencies at the local, state and federal level, as a multi-discipline team to address cases of complex child abuse, and exploitation and neglect in the community.

Fesner noted how CAP and similar groups like it formed across the country as a direct result of the growing number of sexual abuse cases in the United States.

“We realize back in the '80s and early '90s that if a child was disclosing some kind of sexual exploitation or abuse, they had to perhaps tell that first person that they were disclosing to, perhaps a parent or a teacher, and then they were brought to a physician or a medical provider to be checked out. Then they were brought maybe to law enforcement and then to prosecution and then to Child Protective Services, and then maybe in front of a court,” she said. “Having to tell their story over and over again can be incredibly traumatizing and revictimizing.”

Instead, CAP aims to meet children where they're at and get them to open up once for all parties.

“We have conversations with children that are non-leading and non-judgmental to really provide space for that child to feel comfortable and open up about what they've been through,” she said.

CAP began in Chautauqua County in 2007 as part of the county's District Attorney's office. Today, it is its own nonprofit organization with its own staff and two offices, one in Jamestown and one in Dunkirk.

Beth Oakes serves as the executive director. She said they average around 425 cases a year, although that number can vary.

She noted that every family is appointed a family advocate to intercede and advocate for them. “It's a very good support system and sometimes helps families going through a crisis,” she said.

Early in her career, Oakes was a part of the District Attorney's office, before a child advocacy center was formed. After spending a number of years with the YWCA, Oakes came to CAP in 2018.

“It was really nice to come back full circle and see the beauty of the approach of multi-disciplinary and how it works and how it all came to fruition,” she said.

PREVENTION

Along with helping those who have been abused, CAP offers child abuse prevention training. They offer training for parents, first responders and professionals.

Fesner noted that if a parent or adult suspects child abuse, that person should contact law enforcement.

“We're not a first responder. But feel free to reach out to call the Child Advocacy Program and we will walk you through our recommendations of how you should handle your concerns,” she said.

Fesner also emphasizes the “less is more” concept. “If a child comes forward with a disclosure of abuse or if you suspect a child is abused, we encourage you to not ask a lot of questions, not to dig in for details, not to bring this child to multiple people, but to go right to the professionals,” she said.

She notes that improperly dealing with abuse can lead to a host of issues.

“What we know about childhood trauma is it can lead to incredibly tough significant mental health and physical health implications in a person's life,” she said. “Whether that's high cholesterol, high blood pressure, different forms of cancer, different forms of mental illnesses, we know that childhood trauma has a lot of long-lasting effect on people.”

Kelly Ziegler, a family advocate with CAP, said it's important for parents to have open conversations with their children.

“Talk to your children,” she said. “Lots of talking, right? Checking in, know where they're going, know who their friends are. Know who their teachers are, have lots of conversations. I think that's really a good start.”

Ziegler is working with the Jamestown Police Department on a program for parenting in the digital age. It will have two parts. The first part will be about soft parenting skills — relationships, conversations parents need to have with their children, and rule-setting.

Part two of the training will empower parents to put controls on things like routers and cell phones. It will also show parents about programs like “Bark” which monitors social media sites, notifying parents in real time for content, as well as monitors screen time and filters websites.

Ziegler said they hope to be able to roll out the training sometime this spring.

FUNDING

CAP does not charge for any of its services, nor does it accept insurance. Instead, the program is funded through a number of federal, state and local organizations, as well as grants and private donations. Some of those include, but are not limited to, the state Office of Victim Services, Office of Children and Family Services, National Children's Alliance, United Ways in both Northern and Southern Chautauqua County, and several different foundations.

CAP also has fundraisers. The Chautauqua Harbor Hotel is currently holding its annual Fire and Ice celebration, which seeks to raise awareness for and benefits the Child Advocacy Program. The event began Thursday and continues tonight, Feb. 11, from 5-9 p.m.

Then on April 27 will be CAP's Diamond Dinner at Chautauqua Suites.

Fesner said these funds, in particular, are used to support children in ways that outside of what organizations or grants generally permit. For example, she said they have used donated funds to buy a child a computer who was going to go to college. For another child, they were able to pay for equine lessons.

They also use donations for smaller items like healthy snacks, drinks, art supplies and books.

There is a spot on their website where people can donate directly.

To learn more about the Child Advocacy Program and all of its components, visit capjustice.org or call their offices at 716-338-9844 in Jamestown or 716-672-2031 in Dunkirk.