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MAYVILLE, NY (WNY News Now) — Following the conviction of a Silver Creek man for child rape, sex abuse, and child pornography, a local child advocacy group is encouraging parents to keep an eye on their children.
Kelly Ziegler, family advocate for the Child Advocacy Program in Chautauqua County (CAP), says that for any parent who has been scared watching the Dustin Post child rape case unfold, to have open conversations with your children.
“Talk to your children, lots of talking right? And checking in, know where they’re going, know what’s happening, know who their friends are, know who their teachers are, lots of conversations,” says Ziegler.
Kayleah Feser, trauma therapist for CAP says the group works with multiple local, state, and federal agencies to investigate abuse in the area.
“CAP, the Child Advocacy Program, we believe that all children and youth deserve to live, love, learn, and thrive free of abuse, of violence, and exploitation. At CAP, we coordinate a community response to bring hope, healing, and justice to the children and families of Chautauqua County,” explains Feser.
CAP was formed in the early 2000s mimicking other groups across the country following an increase of abuse. Since they are multidisciplinary, it reduces the need for the victim to duplicate interviews and relive their trauma.
“We also provide lots of community training and education. So we provide training called Stewards of Children is a great one that’s offered to community members to really empower normal folks on how to identify when someone’s being abused, when a child’s being abused and what to do. How can you intervene in a way that’s appropriate and trauma-informed and is gonna not cause any more harm in that child’s life,” says Feser.
Feser says if you witness child abuse, the first step is to contact law enforcement.
“If a child comes forward to you with a disclosure of abuse or if you suspect a child in your life is being 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 as we were talking about to share their story, but to go right to the professionals,” explains Feser.
CAP also offers a Protective Parenting class, as well as a collaborative class with the Jamestown Police Department called Links to Safety.
“A two-part training for parents about parenting in a digital age. So cool, the first half of the training is all about those soft-parenting skills, relationship skills, the conversations we need to have, the discussions, the rule setting, all of that,” says Freser. “And then the second half, we have our detective extraordinaire who is such a tech master who has put together with Kelly an awesome how to put controls on your routers, how to put stuff on your androids, your iPhone’s, and how to do all the technical stuff.”
All services are free thanks to government funding, grants and donations.
“We are always looking for donations because as a grant funded organization, there’s so many limitations on what we can spend that money for, so we’re always looking for discretionary funds to be able to help the children that we serve,” says Feser.
The group has two upcoming fundraisers; Fire and Ice on February 9 through February 11 in Celoron, and the Diamond Dinner on April 22 in Mayville.
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