Child Witness Centre works to shrink waitlist with more funding from community, government

A Kitchener, Ont., charity that helps support children navigate the criminal justice process says its waitlist is shrinking after ballooning to over 200 names last year.

Child Witness Centre (CWC) still has a waitlist, but it's steadily shrinking for a multitude of reasons. 

"It's continued hard work and economic recovery," said Robin Heald, executive director of the CWC. "We have so many trends that have contributed to the waitlist beginning, and those things are now easing."

CWC is a registered charity started in 1981 that provides support, resources, education and advocacy to children and young people who are victims or witnesses to traumatic incidents, and their families. 

When Heald joined the group a little over a year ago, she said the waitlist was sitting at 204 children. Now, she said, it's actually at 117. 

"I'm over the moon," said Heald. As someone with lived experience as a child victim and witness, she said the CWC's work is of utmost priority to her. 

Much of the centre's work is in providing support for child victims of physical and sexual abuse. The Child Youth Advocacy Centre on Queen Street walks children through the investigation phase of a report with a trained advocate. It also provides support for children in family violence situations where they are either the victims or witnesses to family violence. 

But in 2022 and 2023, for the first time in 40 years of operation, the CWC had to keep children waiting on a list for services. 

This has much to do with the MeToo Movement, wherein Heald said the number of children coming forward as one in 10 has now shifted to one in seven. 

Then came COVID-19, where regular donors became cash strapped, fundraising events became far and few between, and court dates became backlogged. Where a court case normally would take 14 months, it could now last for two to three years. 

"That initial wave, we were not ready for," said Heald. ""Their journey through the process is now twice as long as it used to be with changes in the judicial system."

Economic recovery

Now, though, the CWC has seen a reprieve. 

"We've upped our game as far as lobbying and publicity," said Heald. The CWC's increase in raising funds and awareness is one of the more notable elements of their economic recovery. 

Across the board for most non-profit organizations, community donations have gone down considerably this year, said Alexis De Leon, treasurer for the CWC's board of directors. 

"We typically get our funds from companies and foundations, but really our challenge has been personal donations," said De Leon. "It's hard to fundraise for a cause like this because it's hard to convey the need without disclosing identities."

This year, the CWC instead saw an increase in the provincial funding it received, with 22 per cent of their funding this past year coming from allocated government funds, while another 32 per cent came from competing "incredibly hard" in the grant system. 

"We're put in an awkward position where we're fighting for funding for victim services," said Heald. 

It's a necessary battle, though, when they're raising about 46 per cent of their funding themselves. 

De Leon said the centre is still in a funding deficit of about $117,000. It takes about $1,000 to help each client. 

"It's imperative that we secure more of those grants, because we do see a major swing if we don't achieve those," said De Leon. 

Heald said she sees a future where that waitlist will finally be at zero. 

Back-to-school surge

According to Heald, children are most likely to report incidents directly before or after a school holiday. 

"Children have amazing protectors in school systems," said Heald. "Teachers are gifted at figuring out what children are going through based on their behaviour."

There are surges in the waitlist every school holiday, so back-to-school season saw a slight increase in those numbers. Heald says that they're just getting to the end of this wave now. 

Heald and De Leon both said they're looking to keeping CWC's model intact, competing for funding and hosting campaigns that boost those community donations. 

Their most recent waitlist campaign is the 1,000 challenge, where individuals and teams are challenged to complete an activity of their choice for 1,000 hours, kilometres, etc. while fundraising. 

"Robin has been a great leader in that," said De Leon. "She's been key in implementing campaigns."