The Limestone Child Advocacy Center (LCAC) hosted a conference Friday at the Beasley Center bringing together law enforcement, Department of Human Resources, LCAC staff, prosecutors, judges, CASA workers and more to present the Multi-Disciplinary Team (MDT) approach in responding to child abuse and neglect cases. MDT is widely considered as the best practice in these cases. The conference also featured National Child Advocacy Center Executive Director Chris Newlin and Darkness to Light Lead Instructor Carol Hogue.

Thursday evening, LCAC board members and staff gathered at Athens High School with Hogue where they recently honored her work as an advocate with a legacy brick. Hogue is the mother of three children and became a child advocate over thirty years ago after learning that an organist at her church in South Carolina had sexually abused her youngest son.

“It really got me into advocacy and its a really bad way to find your calling but if you are going to have to go through something really hard, you want to make something good out of it.,” Hogue said. “It started out as just passing out pamphlets and brochures that talked about Darkness to Light’s five steps to protecting children.”

She said that from there, her role blossomed into much more. “I decided I wanted to be a facilitator for their training program. I did that and then I wanted to work for them, so I did that,” she said. Eventually, she is the Darkness to Light lead instructor, an organization she has been a part of since 2007.

“What started out as something that impacted our family and seemed horrific, has now turn out to be a platform for advocacy. I get to have a personal hand in training those folks who go out and do that training,” Hogue added.

Darkness to Light’s goal is to help end child sexual abuse by “empowering adults to prevent, recognize, and react responsibly to child sexual abuse through awareness, education, and stigma reduction.”

Their approach to empowering others is honoring the voices of victims and survivors, demanding accountability, making deliberate decisions, valuing diverse partnerships, and believing in a growth mindset.

“It is great to get folks doing this training and having this information as they go out into their career,” Hogue said. “Our desire is to create community change.”

Friday’s “Putting the Pieces” Conference focused on trauma and the MDT response. The conference was made possible by the Children’s Justice Task Force grant and the Limestone Child Advocacy Center.