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Kim Cole: Hi, everyone, and thanks for joining us. I’m Kim Cole, President of the Community Foundation of Morgan County. And I have a very special guest here with me today.
And I just wanted to start by saying, one of the things that I try to do on this podcast is raise awareness of nonprofits that are serving our county. And I’m, again, very excited about the guest today. And as you’re listening to her and learning about this organization, I want you to think about, for those of you that would like to help, you can come talk to me about setting up, say, a Family Legacy Fund. And that unrestricted account can help organizations like what we’re going to hear about today. And those donations right now will be tripled by Lilly Endowment’s Gift 8. So come talk to me about that. And as you’re listening now to Emily Perry, founder of Susie’s Place, I want you to think about how you can support this. So welcome, Emily. Emily Perry: Thank you so much for having me. K Yes, I’m very excited. As we were talking before we started here, I recently wrote an article about your organization after really just discovering you. And I’m so excited about the work that you’re doing. So, Susie’s Place, Child Advocacy Centers were started in Avon, but you also have locations in Bloomington and Terre Haute, correct?
Emily Perry: Yep.
Kim Cole: And you serve Morgan County.
Emily Perry: We do.
Kim Cole: Which is why we’re getting involved with you. So, I loved your backstory and how you got to where you decided, hey, I’m going to dive into this and do this. So, start with your background and how you decided to start this organization because it’s incredible.
Emily Perry: Well, thank you. And thank you for giving us just the opportunity to share about our mission and the work. I love to talk about Susie’s Place. So cut me off at any point if you need to. But my personal background, this is my 28th year working in the field of crimes against children. And I come by my passion for this work actually, really naturally. My mom, single mom, and she raised my sister and I, started her own nonprofit organization in the mid-1980s called the Indianapolis Institute for Families. That organization actually provided mental health services and support resources for kids that were victims of abuse and maltreatment and a lot of kids that were post-adoptive. So I got to see my mom work in that space of running her own nonprofit organization.
Kim Cole: It’s in the blood.
Emily Perry: It’s in the blood.
Kim Cole: Yeah, that’s awesome.
Emily Perry: And I knew from a very young age that I wanted to do something in terms of supporting kids that had been victims of abuse or maltreatment. I wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted that to be. But then when I went to Hanover College, I had the opportunity to kind of do a study away program and I went to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and I got to work in the Public Defender’s Office Child Advocacy Unit in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which was such an eye-opening experience for a college kid. I was a 21-year-old Midwesterner girl traveling out to the big city, living in Philadelphia, and working in their child welfare system. It was eye-opening in so many positive and scary ways. But it allowed me to see the Child Advocacy Center model for the very first time.
And so while I was in Philadelphia, there was some place called the Philadelphia Children’s Alliance that had started this Child Advocacy Center kind of approach to crimes against children, which was bringing together law enforcement, prosecutors, child protective services, medical providers, mental health providers, and they were bringing all these professionals together to have these coordinated interventions for kids that were victims of crime, particularly child sexual abuse. And so, I got to be kind of in at the ground level on some of those conversations as an intern. I didn’t understand the magnitude of that at that time.
Kim Cole: Sure, because you were 21.
Emily Perry: Because I was 21 and I’d never seen anything like that and I didn’t know how unique that approach was. That was all that I knew.
Once I graduated from Hanover a year later, I moved out to Portland, Oregon and got to work alongside a program out there called CARES Northwest, which was also a Child Advocacy Center. And so, I really got to see how that team of investigators came together and provided these trauma-informed services for kids.
Kim Cole: So just in a very basic sense, tell our viewers what is a Child Advocacy Center?
Emily Perry: Yes. So a Child Advocacy Center at the most basic level is just a community-based facility where children that are reported victims of crime or reported witnesses to crime will come to that location and we will conduct their information gathering forensic interview. So when you think of a child that’s been a victim of a crime, instead of having law enforcement interview them at a police station or in the backseat of a police car, we’ve created this child-friendly space where kids can come to tell their experience one time to a trained professional that will gather that information in a really kind of child-friendly and age and developmentally sensitive way. But while that conversation is happening, our detectives, our prosecutors, our CPS workers are watching that over closed circuit television in real time from another room at that same location.
Kim Cole: So, this keeps the child from having to tell the story multiple times too, correct?
Emily Perry: It keeps them from having to tell it multiple times to different people that are asking different questions. It’s the most trauma-informed kind of process for kids that have been victims or witnesses, and it positions that investigation the best for a prosecution if that’s the appropriate next step. It also gets that kiddo on the path to healing and recovery as quickly as possible.
So instead of kind of languishing in this space of the criminal justice system with no support, we provide that ongoing support to kids and families, but we also come into court and testify about that child’s statements or about the process of forensic interviewing. So we kind of help educate juries about what’s happening with kids and those dynamics of abuse that might prevent them from telling about child sex abuse within their own family.
Kim Cole: Wow, that’s something. So I know you started, the first Child Advocacy Center was and is in Avon, correct?
Emily Perry: Yes. So, I started working on the Child Advocacy Center in 2005. Our legal name is actually the Hendricks County Child Advocacy Center, but we go by Susie’s Place, which is a little more child friendly. We opened our doors in 2009 in Avon. We opened our second facility in 2012 in Bloomington, Indiana, and then we opened our third facility in 2017 in Terre Haute, Indiana. And we’ve actually served Morgan County since we opened our first center in 2009 and have served them consistently since that time. So they’ve been great partners to Susie’s Place, and we’ve been able to support a lot of families and kids that have come through our doors from Morgan County.
Kim Cole: That’s awesome. So, I know when I was researching for the article I wrote and for this interview, you really serve what, almost 50 counties?
Emily Perry: We served 46 counties last year through our three locations. I think since we opened in 2009, I’m pretty sure we’ve probably served a child from every single county in the state at this point. We will serve our 20,000th child at the end of this year, beginning of next year. So that’s a lot of children that have needed…
Kim Cole: Incredible. So how many interviewers, so to speak, do you employ?
Emily Perry: Yeah. So, we have eight people that are trained to do forensic interviews. I have two in Terre Haute that are full-time, two in Bloomington that are full-time, one full-time person in Avon, and then myself and another person are doing it part-time, and we have one open part-time position right now. That’s covering 1,500 cases a year between those staff.
Kim Cole: That’s incredible. And I know, again, from my research on you, that you also work, you do some work with the armed forces. Is that correct?
Emily Perry: I do. So, I actually hold a separate contract with the Department of Defense for support with children that have been victims in the military. So, if there’s a court martial involving a crime against a child, I will contract for that and help either with the prosecution or the defense, depending on that particular case. But I also train for the Army for their Office of Special Trial Counsel. So those prosecutors in the Army that are prosecuting cases of crimes against children, I come in and train them annually.
Kim Cole: Oh, that is incredible. Very impressive resume.
Emily Perry: Thank you. Appreciate it.
Kim Cole: So where do you see Susie’s Place going?
Emily Perry: Yeah. Great question. So, our focus right now is really kind of on stabilizing the child advocacy centers in Indiana. As many nonprofits have experienced, there’s been some changes at the federal level with federal funding. The child advocacy centers in Susie’s Place in particular in Indiana have relied pretty heavily on federal funding, a specific fund called the Victims of Crime Act Fund. And that funding is not as stable as it used to be. So, a lot of our efforts right now are on stabilizing our funding sources. So, it’s looking to local communities for support. It’s looking to the state of Indiana for some support as well. Indiana is one of only six states left in the country that don’t actually have state level appropriations supporting child advocacy centers. That’s concerning.
Kim Cole: It’s concerning.
Emily Perry: And full transparency, the child advocacy centers have never asked the state for funding before. And so, we’ve never been told no, but we’ve never been provided funding either. So this is the first year that we’re really going to have the opportunity to come to the state and request an investment, both for prevention education in the schools to prevent child abuse from happening in the first place, and also to invest in responding to crimes against children. And Susie’s Place is the largest child advocacy center covering the most territory in the state of Indiana. I’m also the president of the state chapter of all the child advocacy centers. So, we are holding a pretty pivotal role in this conversation of trying to educate our legislators about the need for support in Indiana to stabilize the child advocacy centers. Because if you would ask your local law enforcement or your prosecutors here in Morgan County if they felt like they could do this work without a child advocacy center any longer, I think they would tell you that they don’t feel like they could do this work the way kids need it to be done without the CAC. It sounds highly specialized. And I know that law enforcement, prosecutor’s office, they all have their trained professionals in that.
But really, even just the way that it’s structured, the center that’s child friendly, it’s a one-time thing. I mean, I can’t imagine that this isn’t just with all these agencies that I’m sure that they know they need you. And we work so hand in glove together. When we are working and responding to a case, it could be at any time of any day. So, we could be there at 2 o’clock in the afternoon, could be there at 3 a.m. responding to a report of a crime against a child. And what we want to do for our partners and our team members is we want to do really good work of getting reliable information from kids so that they can make good decisions about the next step of their case. So that detective who may have the skills to interview a six-year-old, they need to be focusing on listening to what’s being said and being able to assess the next steps in their case. Let me worry about how to keep that little girl safe and comfortable and figure out how to gather information from her.
That’s just better for her and it’s going to be better for the case overall.
Kim Cole: Absolutely.
Emily Perry: And so, we are really there to work together as a team.
Kim Cole: Yeah. That sounds incredible. I know you’re making a great impact. Tell us about the name.
Emily Perry: Yeah. So, like I said, our legal name is the Hendricks County Child Advocacy Center, which is not a super child-friendly name. And so when we were developing, we were kind of spit balling ideas of what would be a little more child-friendly. And Susie Austin’s name came up time and time again. And Susie Austin is now our namesake. Susie was one of the first female officers in Hendricks County. She started at the Sheriff’s Department, worked her way up from being a secretary to a detective, and responded to many of the crimes against women and crimes against children’s cases in Hendricks County. And unfortunately, Susie passed away a short time before I started working on Susie’s Place. But I knew Susie’s daughter and I knew Susie’s late husband. And I had asked their family’s permission to name Susie’s Place after Susie, just in honor of her legacy. And a little-known fact, I had mentioned my mom earlier in this. Susie Austin was on the first Child Abuse Task Force in the state of Indiana with my mother. So my mom knew Susie and worked alongside Susie. I didn’t actually know Susie myself, but it was a great honor to be able to do something in her legacy.
Kim Cole: That’s a neat personal connection there. And your mom coming back into the story for full circle. Well, one other thing I want to touch on, you talked about the prevention piece.
So tell me about that.
Emily Perry: Yeah, thank you for asking about that. So, prevention education is something that’s very important to us. You know, because that’s how somehow sometimes you get those cases from that. A hundred percent. So, Susie’s Place goes into schools K through 12th grade, and we teach body safety prevention education to students in schools. To let them know what’s okay and not okay with their bodies, how to identify like safe adults to outreach to if something is going on, to give them an opportunity to tell someone if something has happened to them. And so, prevention education has become something we would love to see ourselves just work ourselves out of the business of responding to crimes against children by just doing prevention. We’re not there yet.
I’m not sure we’ll be there in my lifetime. But we would like to have the ability to provide prevention education to every single student in every school in the state of Indiana. Susie’s Place is in 86 schools.
Kim Cole: Wow.
Emily Perry: So, we’re teaching a lot, but we’re not there yet. We’re not there getting this information in front of every child. But once we get that information into the schools to teach kids about what’s okay and not okay, we’re identifying many children that have been victims of abuse or maltreatment and giving them an opportunity to report. So last year alone, through our prevention education programs, we made almost 900 reports of child abuse and neglect from children out crying after they were informed about what was okay and not okay. So, there is this victim identification component to prevention education. But our goal is to prevent kids from ever experiencing abuse or maltreatment to begin with.
Kim Cole: But I think it’s great that you’re in there saying, hey, this is the kind of thing that’s not okay, because I’m sure a lot of us are sitting there thinking, well, this must be normal.
Emily Perry: That’s exactly what happens. You’re spot on. Kids don’t have the language about their body parts and what’s okay and not okay with their body. Sometimes what’s happening to them is really confusing or they’re being told that it’s okay when it’s not okay.
And so when we’re teaching them about being threatened or have out cried before and were not believed, and that puts those kids at super high risk for further abuse and maltreatment. And so, we want to give kids the language and the education around what’s okay and not okay and the ability to outcry to a safe person if they need help. But we also don’t want that to be limited to one safe person. We actually ask them to identify five safe adults so that if they tell someone and they’re not believed, that they know to tell again and they know to tell again.
Kim Cole: That’s incredible.
Emily Perry: Yeah. Because unfortunately, even though everybody in the state of Indiana is a mandatory reporter of abuse and maltreatment, not everybody reports abuse when they’re made aware of it.
Kim Cole: I’m sure there’s failure at certain points that you wouldn’t realize.
Emily Perry: There is. And it can be hard to report, but those kids need us to speak up on their behalf. And so, if there’s ever a time that you pause even for a moment to think, should I report this? I think I’m concerned about this child. I always encourage you just make the report to the child abuse hotline. It’s an easy phone call to make, and it can make the difference in the life of a child.
Kim Cole: Well, I know you are making huge differences in lives of many, many children. I can’t imagine how many kids that you’re impacting. Speak to Morgan County, your data for Morgan County, how many cases you had last year?
Emily Perry: Last year in 2025, we had 119 cases specifically out of Morgan County. So that means there was 119 times that a child from this community walked through our doors. And that was at two o’clock in the morning. That was on a Saturday afternoon. That was on a Monday at 9 a.m. And we want to be there every single time that a child from Morgan County needs a safe place to come. And we provided mental health services for those kids. We provide medical response for those kids, the forensic interview, ongoing support and advocacy. So that whole array of Child Advocacy Center services, we want to be able to provide to any child from Morgan County that needs us. That’s incredible.
Kim Cole: So, as you mentioned, you’ve lost federal funding. So again, to our viewers, those of you that would be interested in supporting Susie’s Place and the multitude of other nonprofit organizations that Community Foundation supports, I would encourage you to contact me at the Community Foundation. Come to our office, give me a call. And let’s talk about setting up a Family Legacy Fund right now. If you establish a Family Legacy Fund, Lilly Endowment, through their Giving Indiana Funds for Tomorrow, it’s called GIFT 9. Through GIFT 9, you can triple your donation.
So I hope you have enjoyed the interview as much as I have with Emily today. And please consider supporting this organization and others like it through Community Foundation of Morgan County. Thank you.
Emily Perry: Thank you.
