When a victim of sexual abuse within one of nine surrounding Tri-State counties is ready to disclose information to authorities, the first step always is at Holly’s House.
With in-house detectives and a full multi-disciplinary team, Holly’s House provides a safe and comfortable place for investigations to begin. Instead of being interviewed in an interrogation room at a police station (the same place an alleged perpetrator would be) multiple times by multiple people, they give their account one time at Holly’s House to Forensic Interviewer and Program Director Molly Elfreich, while detectives and Department of Child Services authorities view the interview from another room.
“We make it as comfortable as we can, but it’s still not an easy process,” says Holly’s House Executive Director Holly Edmond. “These kids would not come here if something had not happened to them. We need people to understand their statement is enough.”
Along with forensic interviews, the organization also provides free educational programming in Vanderburgh, Posey, Pike, Warren, and Gibson counties. The ultimate goal of Holly’s House, however, is to give victims of sex abuse a voice.
“They have no say in what happened to them, but they absolutely have a say with what they do in these four walls,” says Elfreich.
Speaking Up
812-437-7233 • hollyshouse.org
