Children’s Advocacy Center
The Safe Passage Children’s Advocacy Center (referred to as the “SPCAC”) is where the needs of your child always come first. At the SPCAC, you’ll find a child-friendly, comfortable and warm setting for your child to be able to talk about what happened and receive a wide range of victim services for your child and your family. As a community-based center, our staff serve as first responders in allegations of all types of child abuse. We provide hope and healing to neglected and abused children and their families through treatment, advocacy, and investigation services.
Please note that referrals to the SPCAC can only come from law enforcement or child protection services. Parents, community members and professionals, however, can call the SPCAC for support and referrals if their child has been abused or if abuse is suspected.
Lucy’s tender care sponsored by:
SPCAC
Services
If you have questions about the SPCAC, please contact Scott Coleman at scoleman@SafePassageID.org
Call us for SPCAC questions at...
The Safe Passage Children’s Advocacy Center (SPCAC) is a community-based, child-friendly, and trauma-informed program that coordinates a multidisciplinary response to child abuse allegations. Without a child advocacy center, child victims often have to relive their abuse, detailing their experience multiple times to one official after another, typically at a police station.
We deliver a best practice model that brings together child protective services, law enforcement, our certified forensic interviewers, prosecutors, family advocates, and medical and mental health professionals to provide a coordinated, comprehensive response to victims and their non-offending caregivers.
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Children speak to our forensic interviewers who are trained to understand child development, how to manage bias, and are knowledgeable in addressing secondary trauma and other best practices for interviewing children. The multidisciplinary approach helps improve communication and data collection, which in turn optimizes outcomes and reduces trauma.
Children's advocacy centers like ours are often supported by the National Children's Alliance, an organization dedicated to child advocacy, healing from trauma, and initiatives to reduce violence toward children and support healthy families. Through their efforts, they empower children nationally and offer resources that you can access today to help support children.
Meet Scott Coleman
Director of SPCAC
Scott served for 12 years as a police officer at an internationally accredited law enforcement agency in Southern California. He held various assignments, including hostage negotiator, field training officer, trauma response officer, and detective. When an injury ended his career in law enforcement, Scott authored a set of trauma-informed safety curricula that is currently utilized by over 100,000 K-12 students across the country. Scott’s background as a law enforcement professional and his expertise in youth trauma led him to his current mission as the Director of the Safe Passage Children’s Advocacy Center in Coeur d'Alene, ID in November 2020. Since that time, Scott has led our SPCAC to achieve full accreditation through the National Children's Alliance.
Meet Lucy
Lucy is our certified facility dog provided and trained by Assistance Dogs Northwest. She provides our young clients with emotional support during their forensic interviews and any court hearings.
