About the Georgia Center for Children

Our Mission & History:
The Georgia Center for Children was established as a private, non-profit agency in 1987. The Center’s mission is to help facilitate healing for children and families that have experienced child sexual abuse. This mission is accomplished by providing a safe, friendly place where the child can disclose the abuse to a trained interviewer on videotape; by providing long-term psychological treatment; by coordinating the agencies involved in the investigation of child sexual abuse; and by educating other professionals about child sexual abuse. These services are provided at no cost to children who reside in or were abused in DeKalb or Fulton County. The Georgia Center for Children’s role throughout the criminal investigation is to focus on the child’s needs, rather than focusing on the crime itself.

In 1992 the Georgia Center for Children became the 10th agency in the country to become an accredited member of the National Children’s Alliance and the first in the state of Georgia. It now stands as one of almost three hundred nationwide providing similar services for abused children. The Georgia Center for Children has been honored by UNICEF and The Carter Center as recipient of the 1994 Child Survival Award. The Center was also honored as designated charity of the 1997 Cathedral Antiques Show, as beneficiary of the 2000 WXIA Community Service Awards Dinner, and acknowledged as the finalist for the 2002 Managing for Excellence Award given by the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta.

Until 1994, the Georgia Center for Children provided services to those sexually abused children who resided in or were abused in DeKalb County. Sexually abused children in Fulton County were not receiving a similar type of help.Through a capital grant from the Joseph B. Whitehead Foundation, in February 1994, the Center expanded its services to include Fulton County.

Today, the Center operates a program facility in both Fulton and DeKalb. In 1994 through a capital grant from the Joseph B. Whitehead Foundation, the Center expanded its services to include Fulton County. Sexually abused children in Fulton County were not receiving the same services that were provided in DeKalb County. Today, the Center operates a program facility in both Fulton and DeKalb.