Western Kansas Child Advocacy asks Sherman County for about $12,000 to support mobile services

An agency representative for Western Kansas Child Advocacy described the nonprofit’s mobile child‑advocacy program and asked the board to consider roughly $12,000 in county budget support.

The representative said the mobile unit provides forensic interviews, therapy and medical services in communities without a permanent office, and is able to travel to rural locations to conduct interviews in child‑friendly settings. "We're the only agency mobile child advocacy center out here in Western Kansas," the representative said, describing retrofitted RVs with interview and therapy rooms and child‑friendly tools that help children communicate.

The speaker supplied recent service counts, saying that in the prior period the program provided five forensic interviews, 23 therapy sessions for three children and 46 advocacy sessions for 14 children, and explained that the agency provides comfort bags (hygiene items, blankets, pillows and age‑appropriate materials) to children who cannot return home immediately after interview. The representative asked the county to consider adding about $12,000 to its budget to support those services and associated supplies.

A letter from a parent read during the presentation described a positive experience with the program: "After many years of asking numerous times for help, I felt today was the day that I finally had waiting for. I felt somebody heard for us and cared for us," the letter said as read by the agency representative.

Commissioners asked clarifying questions about how local groups and congregations could donate items and about storage and distribution logistics. The representative said the supplies would be stored in a Colby office serving northern counties and offered to schedule site visits if local advocates or officials wanted to see the mobile unit.

The board took the request under advisement and indicated the item would be considered when working on the county budget; no vote to allocate funds was recorded at the meeting.