EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the final part of a series about sex trafficking in Cobb County.
At first glance, it looks like a preschool.
Child-sized furniture, dollhouses and stuffed animals fill the rooms, along with a living, breathing golden retriever named Glenda.
But this is a place where, when a red light is on in the hall, there’s a child behind the door. They are being interviewed about potential abuse, sometimes sex trafficking, in the presence of cops and caseworkers.
SafePath Children’s Advocacy Center, off Whitlock Avenue in Marietta, has six interview rooms. On a recent Tuesday morning, all six red lights were on.
Safepath is just one of Georgia’s 47 Children’s Advocacy Centers, where children believed to have been abused or sex trafficked go for assessments.
In 2023, Children’s Advocacy Centers of Georgia worked with approximately 400 confirmed victims of child sex trafficking.
While a specially trained staffer interviews a child, police and caseworkers from the state Division of Family & Children Services observe, to avoid duplicating investigative efforts. SafePath shares a building with the Cobb County Police Department’s Crimes Against Children Unit, as well as a DFCS office.
“Sometimes … organizations and entities can silo, and that is not in the best interest of the child,” said Naeshia McDowell, who oversees CACGA’s child sex trafficking response team.
The age-appropriate environs, meanwhile, are meant to make the kids feel safe.
“It’s done in a way instead of the old interrogation style,” said Gail Garland, SafePath’s director of advocacy.
In this public-private partnership, the centers are referred to cases by local, state and federal law enforcement, as well as DFCS.
“We’re not mandated … to investigate,” SafePath CEO Jinger Robins said. “We just collaborate, coordinate to reduce the…
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