Staff at the Kristen French Child Advocacy Centre Niagara in St. Catharines, Ont., from left to right: Court support staff Krystal Joseph, executive director Brian Bratt, court support staff Liana Clarysse and Joanne Macri, director of the Child Victim Court Support Program.Supplied
The organizer: Joanne Macri
The pitch: Helping children who have experienced abuse
Throughout her 30-year career working as a defence lawyer in New York State, Joanne Macri saw first-hand how the justice system often fails the victims of crime, especially children.
Last year, Ms. Macri returned home to the Niagara Falls area to become director of a new child victim and witness program at the Kristen French Child Advocacy Centre Niagara, a St. Catharines, Ont.-based charity that helps children who have suffered abuse. The centre is named after Kristen French, who was abducted and murdered in 1992.
The program works with the Niagara Regional Police who use the centre to interview child-victim witnesses. Once the police work is finished, the centre introduces its many services. Prior to the program starting, the police interview would end and the centre wouldn’t always have an opportunity to offer its support. Now that happens immediately.
“We explain to them that basically the centre is available to provide that trauma-informed support, whether it’s through after-school programs, counselling or the summer camps we run,” said Ms. Macri, who added that all of the services are free.
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If the case ends up going to court, the program continues to provide support throughout the legal process. It has even created a court support space where children can testify virtually from a comfortable room.
The program has been funded by donations and an Ontario government grant, which help pay for therapists and other staff. Since July, it has been working with 110 children.
Ms. Macri said that during her legal career, which included working on justice reform with the New York State government, she often came across defendants who had suffered abuse as children and never received the help they needed. “I felt like there was this moment in time where building the resilience of children in a trauma situation is really the core here. If you do that, it brings integrity to the justice system,” she said.
She’s found returning home and working at the centre to be a gratifying new chapter in her career.
“This is a moment where we give this child a voice, we encourage them to be strong enough and resilient enough to tell the truth, and then we also provide them with tools to deal with the trauma. This is really what drives me in working in this program, knowing that we can help them, not just today, but also into the future.”