How Bivona Child Advocacy Center can help
Coordinating protection, treatment, counseling, investigation and prosecution
Take the tour: Bivona Child Advocacy Center
Slideshow - How Bivona Can Help
How Bivona Can Help: Outside building photo
Bivona Child Advocacy Center is easy to find. We’re located at 275 Lake Avenue, Rochester, NY 14608. Map and directions.
How Bivona Can Help: Waiting Room #3
Volunteers spend time with kids when they’re waiting for an appointment, and with siblings when a child is being seen by our partners.
How Bivona Can Help: Interview room #1
Children tell their story in one of our carpeted, comfortable forensic interviewing rooms.
How Bivona Can Help: Interview room #2
Generally, only one adult interviewer is in the room with the child, but other professionals can watch the interview from behind a one-way mirror.
How Bivona Can Help: Medical room #1
If a medical exam is necessary, it can be performed right at Bivona, in our kid-sized medical exam room, by professionals from the REACH Program at Golisano Children’s Hospital at Strong.
How Bivona Can Help: Medical room #2
A parent or guardian can be with the child during the medical exam.
How Bivona Can Help: Hallway shot – kites
Our wall of kites. Each kite celebrates a significant donation of money to Bivona. Kids can tell that Bivona is a place with a lot of love built in.
How Bivona Can Help: Meeting room #1
We have several meeting rooms where advocates spend time with kids and families helping them coordinate services, and sometimes preparing for trial.
How Bivona Can Help: Meeting room #2
And we have a large conference room where our partners can meet to coordinate the ways they help children and families, including a biweekly case review and monthly child fatality review.
How Bivona Can Help: Happy child[ren]
![How Bivona Can Help: Happy child[ren]](http://bivonacac.org/sites/default/files/images/Bivona-Slide_12.jpg "How Bivona Can Help: Happy child[ren]")
Everything about Bivona Child Advocacy Center is designed to restore trust and begin the process of healing.
Ways we can help when a child is abused:
- All necessary services are coordinated and delivered in a team approach—making it simpler, faster, and less stressful for everyone involved. Read about our Partners, below.
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The Bivona team helps with the child’s interview, with the investigation, medical evaluation, prosecution, crisis intervention, counseling, and advocacy throughout the legal process. - The child is helped at a warm, welcoming, child-friendly place. This is much less traumatic for the child than having to go to a police station or emergency room.
- Professionals from our partner agencies are experienced in dealing with children and abuse.
- We support the family as well as the child.
We can also help when you are looking for information and support:
- Do you need help in putting together a Safety Action Plan for your family? Read more.
- Do you worry about behavior you see in a child, or an adult and need to ask some questions about it? There’s more information about behavior that indicates abuse on this site, but you should also feel free to contact us to discuss.
The old way and the Child Advocacy Center way: how it’s better for everyone
These illustrations are republished courtesy of the Chicago Children’s Advocacy Center.
Our partners
Monroe County Child Protective Services
A program of Monroe County Department of Human Services Children and Family Services Division, responsible for receiving and investigating reports of suspected abuse and neglect of children; protecting children who have been abused or neglected; and providing support and rehabilitative services to families where children have been abused or neglected. A Child Protective Services team which specializes in the investigation of child sexual abuse, physical abuse and child fatalities is co-located at Bivona Child Advocacy Center.
Law enforcement, including:
The City of Rochester’s law enforcement organization. There are Investigators from the department specifically assigned to investigate child sexual abuse cases with Child Protective Services; that coordination occurs at Bivona.
Monroe County’s law enforcement organization provides coverage to those towns and villages without a dedicated local law enforcement unit. Investigators are assigned to investigate child sexual abuse cases with Child Protective Services; that coordination occurs at Bivona.
New York State’s law enforcement organization is responsible for investigating child sexual abuse cases, intrafamilial and extrafamilial, which may be multi-jurisdictional in nature or cases from outlying counties without specialized investigators. A full-time investigator is co-located at Bivona.
Monroe County District Attorney’s Office
Prosecutes all child abuse cases in Monroe County. Assistant District Attorneys from the Domestic Violence Bureau are often at Bivona preparing children and families for court proceedings.
REACH Program of Golisano Children’s Hospital at Strong
Located at Bivona Child Advocacy Center, the REACH program provides psychosocial/ medical evaluations and forensic interviews of children who may be victims of sexual or physical abuse. Facilities at Bivona include a child-sized medical examining room.
Rape Crisis Service
This program provides advocacy and support to child victims and their families. Advocates provide services that may include referrals to counseling, accompanying families to court, and coordinating application for assistance with the New York State Crime Victim’s Board. Advocates are co-located at Bivona.
Linden Oaks Sexual Abuse Treatment Services
A private agency specializing in treatment, training and consultation for victims, offenders and families affected by sexual abuse. Clinicians are located at Bivona five days a week, and help children and families deal with the many questions that come up following sexual abuse. Many of LOSATS’ services are covered under health insurance plans.
Catholic Family Center
Rochester’s largest family service provider; Catholic Family Center provides home-based Crisis Intervention services over an intensive six-to-eight-week timeframe for children and their families. They then transition families to long-term treatment services if appropriate. Crisis intervention specialists are co-located at Bivona.
