Four-legged confidant to help local children survivors talk through their trauma
When it's time for a child to undergo a forensic interview, they're brought into a small room and sat down where New Hope and Kids Hope Director Suzi Fode is seated. If staff believe the child would benefit from Valor's presence, he's brought in, told to jump up onto the couch, and rests his head on the child's lap.
Emry Dinman/Columbia Basin Herald
Valor, a two-year-old yellow Labrador, is in the final stages of training to become a Facility Assistance Dog, when he'll earn his vest. For now, he's still wearing his "puppy vest," though he's already hard at work to comfort children who have survived domestic abuse or neglect and need to talk through their experiences.
Suzi Fode shows up the observation room, where law enforcement or other observers can watch what's going on in the interview room via video cameras and a microphone. Even though Valor hasn't been fully certified, staff have already seen an instance where, when a child was left alone for a moment with Valor, they started to disclose what happened to them to the dog, who they felt comfortable and safe with.
Though Valor has a bed in basically every room inside Kids Hope, he's also just as comfortable plopping down wherever he's been asked to stay.
MOSES LAKE — Whenever someone walks into Kids Hope, a Children Advocacy Center in Moses Lake, it’s never for a positive reason – the children who walk through the organization’s doors are suspected victims of abuse, and letting someone else into that trauma is never an easy task.
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