Public Education and Community Center

Dunebrook makes it's facilities available to numerous community organizations, including United Way, Step Ahead, First Steps, Child Fatality Review Team, Child Protection Team, Healthy Communities, Literacy Council, Tobacco Coalition, La Leche League, and other child service-related groups.

For public service, public information and awareness, Dunebrook has a Speaker's Bureau (Staff and Board Members) available for presentations, radio and television programs, fairs , and tours. Topics our Bureau can present include:

• Child Abuse and Neglect Facts and Prevention

• Substance Abuse/Use

• Shaken Infant Syndrome

• Child Development

• Child Safety

• Parenting Skills

• Body Safety (for children K-5th Grades)

Dunebrook also has a resource library with information on a wide variety of topics, such as: education, parenting, financial planning, safety, child development and health. The many books, videos, kits, pamphlets, etc. are available for loan to the public.  

Body Safety Program
Body Safety is a program used to help prevent sexual abuse by teaching children to distinguish between good and bad touches, to learn to say no, and to learn how to tell someone. A presentation meeting with parents is available. The program is available to elementary schools in LaPorte County at no charge to schools.

Advocacy Center - Forensic Interviews
At the Child Advocacy Center (CAC), children are given the opportunity to talk about alleged sexual abuse in a safe, child-friendly environment. The CAC’s recording capabilities allow a team of multi-disciplined professionals investigating the allegations to observe the forensic interview live from a monitoring room. This technique eliminates the need for multiple interviews with the child. Child Forensic Interviewers, trained through a process known as “Finding Words Indiana,” use aids, such as pictures, diagrams and/or anatomically correct dolls to assist the child in verbalizing their recollection situations that may be too difficult to discuss with words alone. Victims of child sexual abuse are often too embarrassed to talk about what is happening or they are threatened into silence, carrying all alone the burden of knowing that something horrible is happening to them. When children tell about their abuse, they no longer have to carry that burden alone.

Advocacy Center
Dunebrook is available to law enforcement and Child Protective Services for interviewing child abuse victims. The homelike, child-friendly environment is safe and comfortable while offering discreet monitoring and recording capabilities.