In 2023 alone, there were 55,293 child victims served by the 70 child advocacy centers in Texas. Of those, Garth House served more than 700 of those children throughout Jefferson, Orange, Hardin, Jasper, Tyler and Newton Counties. Through the efforts of a multidisciplinary team, Garth House is dedicated to shining a healing light on the dark world of child abuse and child sex trafficking. Since 1991, Garth House, a charter member of the National Children’s Alliance in Washington D.C., has provided over 18,000 forensic interviews, along with counseling, care coordination and education services.
Garth House, Mickey Mehaffy Children’s Advocacy Program was named in memory of former Jefferson County Assistant District Attorney, Mickey Mehaffy, recognizing her personal endeavors to enrich the lives of the Southeast Texas children.
With the mission “to prevent child abuse and neglect and to lessen the trauma to child victims of sexual and severe physical abuse during the investigative, prosecutorial and healing process,” Garth House strives to focus on innocent victims. It’s a monumental task and the community’s help is needed.
The 34th annual “Pour Les Enfants” Gala offers the community a chance to support the small voices that have a right to be heard – Thursday, Nov. 21, at 6 p.m. The event is being chaired for the second consecutive year by Amy Pyburn and a host of dedicated ladies. Individual tickets, tables, sponsorship and underwriting opportunities are available by texting GHPLE24 to 53555 or visiting givebutter.com/GarthHousePourLesEnfantsGala2024.
Cocktail hour and silent auction begin at 6 p.m. Silent auction includes: A&M, UT & LSU college football tickets, James Avery, Tory Burch, Poncho Outdoors, Maui Jim and much more. The popular Jeep Wrangler Raffle is back for 2024. Patrons have a chance to win a brand-new Jeep by purchasing a $100 ticket also available by texting GHPLE24 to 53555 or scanning the QR code.
Following a delicious dinner by Gates Kitchen being served by Lamar University Culinary Arts students the drawing will be held for the Jeep raffle. Up next is the exciting Live Auction! Packages include: a fabulous five day/four night vacation at Wispy Waters in beautiful Watercolor, FL; His and Hers VIP custom boot package from Republic Boot Company; a full Houston Sports Weekend – four tickets for all four days of the Texas Children’s Houston Open, four tickets to the Houston Astros opening weekend game against the New York Mets and two rooms, Thursday-Sunday, at the beautiful Post Oak Hotel in Uptown Houston.
“With the strict stipulations on both federal and state funding involved with some grants, we have a $2 million budget –a fourth of the budget comes from private donations and fundraisers, such as ‘Pour Les Enfants,’ which is our largest fundraising event of the year,” said Marion Tanner, Garth House Executive Director. “All of our services to the children and their families are at no cost to the families.
Services include forensic interviews, long-term counseling and a program to support caregivers of trafficking victims, along with education and prevention. Garth House provides a safe, homelike environment for children to tell their stories. Investigative agencies can then view the recordings when needed, eliminating the child having to repeatedly speak about their abuse throughout the investigative process.
“When a child has been traumatized and they come to our facility to be interviewed, we have a very inviting, comfortable, warm and welcoming atmosphere,” said Johnna LeDoux, Garth House Operations Manager. “Some of the children even want to stay longer, and that is a very good feeling.”
Garth House currently has two offices, one in Beaumont and a smaller facility in Orange. They also make use of donated space such as offices and churches in the surrounding counties they serve to provide therapy services.
“Our new building will be more child friendly and expand our Beaumont campus,” said Tanner. “We didn’t want it to resemble anything like an institution. It’s a beautiful facility.”
The new building will be named the MDT Center, for the multidisciplinary team that includes forensic services at Garth House, district attorney’s offices, law enforcement, CPS, forensic nurses and juvenile probation.
Garth House’s counseling program provides specialized mental health services including trauma-focused counseling to meet the needs of child victims and their families. The purposes of the counseling program are to promote healing, lessen the likelihood of revictimization, and to decrease the ongoing and long-term social, emotional, and developmental outcomes of trauma. Services are offered to children, siblings and their caregivers. The counseling is offered at no cost to children (age 4-17) who have been sexually or severely physically abused and are not receiving counseling from another agency.
“We have a huge education program,” said Tanner.
Garth House promotes community education with presentations to a variety of organizations. Some of the topics include New Parent Hospital Program, Baby Moses Law, Shaken Baby Syndrome, Risk Factors of SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome), Darkness to Light Prevention Programs (TEA approved and CEU’s available), community awareness and identifying child sex trafficking.
“Next year, we are hoping to host more education events open to the public at the newly remodeled space, which will allow us to do more informative events for the community,” added LeDoux.
Volunteering is another big part of Garth House.
“Our volunteers help staff on our administrative side as well as the hospital program,” said LeDoux. “Some have been with us for more than 20 years, but we would love to have more.”
For those interested in volunteering, call (409) 838-9084.
“Garth House is here whenever the investigators need us – 24/7,” said Tanner. “We have a very tenured and experienced staff and we provide expert testimony to help insure that cases have all that they need for a successful conviction. When it happens, it lets us know that the system is working. It also shows the cumulative effort of the multidisciplinary team and allows the children to have some finality.
“We want the children to understand even if there wasn’t a conviction in the case, they did the right thing by telling and letting them know the system has fully supported them.”