. The population of
El Paso is about 600,000, but the metropolitan area of three cities
is over 2 million.  El Paso is home to the federally recognized
Native American Tigua Tribe along with Army base Fort Bliss. 

Susan Oliva has been Executive
Director of ACCEP since 1997.  ACCEP is housed on the grounds of
the Lee & Beulah Moor Childrens Home in a renovated building that
was also used to house foster youth.  Under Ms. Olivas leadership
many positive changes have occurred.  Over a decade ago, child
victims were waiting six months for medical and counseling assistance;
the Sheriffs deputy carried a giant camera on a tripod set up in the
middle of the police substation for the interview; and the closest child
advocacy center was three hours away in Alpine, TX.  Starting from
an empty space, today the hallways are filled with colorful pictures
painted for free by a sign painter for Coca-Cola, and the playroom/waiting
rooms are comfortably filled with inviting toys and books for the children. 
Successful fundraising has allowed for the expansion of the building
in 2002.

Currently, ACCEP houses
13 detectives, two sergeants, a lieutenant, a clerk from the El Paso
municipal Police Department, and three officers from the Sheriffs Department
Sex Crimes Unit, who handle all sex crime victims, including adults. 
Also housed in the building are three CPS investigators; a County Attorney
and a District Attorney (three days per week), three Assistant District
Attorneys; and two investigators from Child Care Licensing who investigate
child care center child abuse cases.  They hold monthly staff meetings
to report on and discuss approximately 45 cases per month. In addition,
a large classroom that seats 60 is used for trainings by ACCEP for new
interviewers, refresher courses, and for foster parent trainings. 
The community has access to the facility free of charge as long as the
trainings are child-related.

There are two interview
rooms dedicated to older and younger victims.  The Maui Room is
used primarily for older children.  It has a rattan chair and love
seat, pine trees, a one-way mirror, and two cameras.  One camera
is hidden in plain sight, but visible, on a small bookcase. 
The second camera (with pan-and-zoom capabilities) is hidden behind
a birdcage in the corner by the door.  Victims are not told they
will be taped, but if asked, the interviewer will tell them they are
being taped.  There are anatomical dolls, crayons, and paper, in
the event a child wants to demonstrate abuse or draw.  The microphone
is hidden in plain sight as well, just under the one-way mirror, but
painted over so it is not obvious. The Rainbow Room, for younger children,
is brighter.  The cameras are obscured by design; one is in the
monitoring room in the mirror, and the other is hidden behind a smiley
face cutout on the wall.  A cloud blanket covers the comfortable
couch, and there is a primary-color picnic table for drawing.

The monitoring rooms are
small, with one monitor, one set of headphones, and two DVD recorders
(although only one is used if CPS is not involved).  There are
seats for up to six people to monitor the interview, either through
the mirror or by watching the monitor.  If the interviewer takes
questions from observers, they have the option of using an earpiece,
or leaving the room and coming into the monitoring room.  ACCEP
had contractors provide additional sound-proofing to the space. 
Parents are not allowed to view the interview or DVD.

Between the front hall
entrance and the conference room is a childs playroom/waiting area. 
When a child is finished with their interview and prior to leaving,
they are invited to come back to this room and pick a toy from the toy
closet to take home. Other rooms include a storage room filled with
clothes and diapers donated by the community.  The clothes are
available for children for a number of reasons, such as rapid removal,
removal from school directly to foster care, or for children whose clothes
are dirty or who need new items. There is also a conference room, kitchen,
a bathroom, and offices for all of the agencies who house staff there
(law enforcement, district attorney, county attorney, CPS).

Since its inception, ACCEP
has interviewed 6,000 child victims, averaging 40-45 victim interviews
per month. Due to the fact that 85% of El Paso residents are Spanish-speaking,
and 30% of those speak only Spanish, all interviewers are bi-lingual.
They also have interpreters for hearing impaired victims on-call. The
Tigua Tribe has no formal Memorandum of Understanding with ACCEP, but
they are allowed to use it for their interviews.  Cases involving
either Tigua Tribe members or military families from Fort Bliss are
handled by the FBI, and sometimes CPS.  Similarly, if a case is
from the local bordering area of New Mexico, ACCEP can provide a courtesy
interview for any law enforcement agency and send them the recording. 
Physical examinations are not provided at the center but coordinated
through the local hospital or the facilities at Texas Tech.  Approximately
54 child victims annually get a rape exam at the local hospital. 
Texas Tech conducts exams on physical abuse, as they have a special
pediatric unit. 

Please feel free to contact
Susan Oliva at the Advocacy Center for the Children of El Paso, Texas
for additional information, at 915/545-5400, s_oliva@juno.com.