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Balloons decorate the stairs and banister of the newly opened North County Children's Justice Center in American Fork, which celebrated its grand opening Saturday, April 27, 2024.

Curtis Booker, Daily Herald

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Utah County Justice Center Asscociate Director Heather Allen cuts the ribbon welcoming the community to the new North County Children's Justice Center in American Fork on Saturday, April 27, 2024.

Curtis Booker, Daily Herald

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Community members exit the newly opened North County Children's Justice Center in American Fork during an open house Saturday, April 27, 2024.

Curtis Booker, Daily Herald

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The Utah County Children’s Justice Center has a new facility in the heart of American Fork, joining a Provo location that’s been in operation since 1991.

Over the past three decades, the CJC has provided healing and hope to children and families during horrendous circumstances surrounding abuse. For young victims, the investigative process into a traumatic case of physical or sexual abuse of a child can be a frightening experience.

With growth in Utah County, the Children’s Justice Center felt it was time to expand services beyond Provo. In the fall of 2020, the organization purchased a 150-year-old residential home to transform into a new center.

“We recognized that there was a great need in this (north) part of the county,” Associate Director Heather Allen explained. “There are a lot of families in the surrounding areas that are moving in and a lot of them have young children, and we recognize that driving all the way to Provo was going to be difficult for them and would just add to the stress that they are already experiencing.”

But retrofitting a home built in the late 1800s to live up to the needed characteristics of a Children’s Justice Center would be no easy feat.

“It’s been a lot of work to convert this home into a commercial property, meeting all the requirements while also keeping it homey and inviting,” Allen told the Daily Herald.

In early April, the Utah County Commission passed a resolution supporting the center’s new location. According to the resolution, the center served over 4,000 victims in 2023, with nearly 2,000 of those being cases of child abuse.

Having professionals trained to implement trauma-informed care and intervention is a quality of the CJC that Keira Shae, a survivor of child abuse, will never forget.

Shae turned to the CJC twice as a child for abuse she endured, sexually and physically, by people close to her family.

Shae feared by telling her mother what happened would result in more abuse. The Children’s Justice Center alleviated those fears, she says, thanks to their staff.

She would go on to graduate from Utah Valley University with a degree in psychology. Shae also wrote a memoir titled “How the Light Gets In” in which she journals about her life growing up in poverty and dealing with abuse as a child.

The now-mother and wife credits the Children’s Justice Center for leading her on a path to survival, demonstrating the center’s commitment to providing comprehensive support for child abuse victims.

“What I love about the Children’s Justice Center is not just what they do in the moment but how they create support for months and  years to come, and (they) just create a little network so that you don’t fall through the cracks,” Shae told the Daily Herald.

During a ribbon-cutting and open house ceremony Saturday, local leaders and officials highlighted the CJC’s commitment to providing comprehensive support for child abuse victims by expanding to more areas in Utah County.

“We can have an environment for kids that can come in, they can feel safe. They can feel like they’re not into in an institution, but they’re really in somebody’s home,” American Fork Mayor Brad Frost said. “And it just lays the groundwork for healing.”

According to data from the Utah Women & Leadership Project, nearly 13% of Utahns report being molested before they turn 18. The numbers get even more staggering, as the report found 78.7% of sexual abuse victims reported being assaulted by the age of 18. Of those, 34.9% stated they were assaulted before their 10th birthday.

Utah County Commissioner Amelia Powers Gardner, reaffirming the need for another Children’s Justice Center, emphasized the importance of children having an added resourced to provide treatment and support after suffering from abuse.

“We are so excited to have this new facility here to help families and children that have been abused, to support our community and to break the cycle of child abuse,” Powers Gardner said. “We as a county are so happy to support you and the work you do.”

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