Address: 2632 N Cherry Street Mt. Carmel, IL 62863
Phone: 618-382-8427
The Guardian Center, Inc. is a nonprofit child advocacy center. It’s designed to address the problem of child abuse in a child-sensitive manner. They began providing services in May 1999. They currently service Wabash, Edwards, Gallatin, Saline, White, Richland, Lawrence and Crawford counties.
The Guardian Center provides services to any child under the age of 18 who resides or was abused within their service area and has reported sexual or severe physical abuse to law enforcement or DCFS. All services are free of charge, confidential, and voluntary. The Guardian Center depends on our communities’ financial support to continue its programs for abused children and their families.
The center provides child-sensitive interviewing sites in their offices that are created to be comfortable for children. Each child is assigned an advocate who is the primary means for providing supportive services to children and families. They are continually working with other professionals in our community to keep these children from “falling through the cracks.”
The advocate also provides:
-Referrals to counseling & other services
-Transportation to appointments
-Keeping the families updated on proceedings
-Preparing children & families for court proceedings
-Support throughout entire process until no longer needed
In 1999, The Guardian Center, Inc. began interviewing children in February and began advocacy services in May for families experiencing sexual abuse. Services expanded in 2000 to include Edwards and Wabash Counties. In 2003, services again expanded to serve families experiencing severe physical abuse.
In 2006, the Center opened a Harrisburg satellite to serve Saline and Gallatin Co. children. In January of 2010, they began establishing a satellite interviewing area in Crawford County to serve children from Richland, Lawrence and Crawford Counties. In 2016, they opened another satellite office in Mt. Carmel to better serve Edwards and Wabash Co. They moved to their current location in Mt. Carmel in 2024.
All services begin after the child’s disclosure and continue until proceedings are finished or the family no longer desires services. The Center provides advocacy, referrals, court assistance, specialized medical exams, multidisciplinary team staffing and training, and community education for children, parents, and others. All counties record victim interviews. The mission statement of the center is as follows: “The Guardian Center is committed to the protection and healing of abused children and their families.”