Local group being formed to get ACERT program going in Lakes Region

LACONIA — Local law enforcement officials, social workers, early childhood specialists, school officials, and others are ready to form a working group to pursue the idea of setting up a program to assist toddlers and children exposed to severe trauma.

About 40 people representing mental health services, child-care providers, faith-based groups, school districts, and volunteers who work with children, attended a program Wednesday to learn about the Adverse Childhood Experiences Response team, which has been operating in Manchester for the past 2½ years.

The presentation about the Manchester program was given by Lara Quiroga, the director of Strategic Initiatives for Children at the Manchester Community Health Center, and Manchester Police Sgt. Peter Marr, who supervises the Manchester Police Department’s sexual and domestic violence unit.

“Think of what your community needs,” Quiroga said, regarding the program which aims provides to get early-intervention services for children of any age who have been exposed to traumatic events, including abuse, neglect or household dysfunction.

She said those thinking of setting up an ACERT team need to ask what services already exist in the community that the program will be able to draw on, and then what additional services are needed to make the program effective. She said that once the answers to those two questions are known “then that’s the time to ask how are we going to pay for it.”

Marr said that most of the cases that the Manchester ACERT team handles involve incidents of domestic violence – far more than drug-related events such as overdoses.

“We are looking for people who will be digging in and making this (ACERT program) work,” said Karen Welford, the head of a steering committee for the Coalition for Children Family and Community. “This is the beginning of some exciting action.”

The new response team would be comprised of a police officer, a social worker and a family support specialist who would make a visit to a residence where a child had been present at a police event. The team would meet with the child’s parent or primary caregiver and the child, to explain to the adult what services the child could receive to help mitigate the impacts of the trauma the child has been through.

Lakes Region Child Care Executive Director Marty Ilg, who helped organize Wednesday’s program, expects that the working group will hold an organization meeting next week and will then meet a number of times prior to the steering committee’s next meeting in January.

Those interested in being in the study group should contact Erin Pettengill, director of the Family Resource Center at (603) 581-1571.