The Advisory Board of the Child Advocacy Center of Bristol County held a grand opening and ribbon cutting on June 7, 2007, for the newly-completed center located on the lower floor of the Cherry & Webb building in downtown Fall River. The 2,500 square foot facility provides interview space with an adjoining observation room for Bristol County victims of abuse to testify. An adjoining medical examination facility permits the entire process to take place in one facility. Up to now, victims have had to travel to Boston or Providence. Bristol County has been the only one in Massachusetts without such a facility. Click here for photos of the funding announcement and the beginning of construction in January 2007.
 

(Top row, left) New Bedford Police Chief Ronald E. Teachman greets Ann Parsons Marchant and Mary Griffon in one of the interview rooms. (Top row, center) New Bedford Police Domestic Violence officer Camille Anderson checks out the one way mirrored window with Carol Wilson. (Top row, right) St. Anne's Hospital Social Work Services Director Mary Cochrane tours the unit with her daughter. (Middle row, left) Massachusetts Representative Robert Correia and Senator Joan Menard who supported the project congratulate the board for all of their work in making the Center a reality. (Middle row, right) Leslie Knowles, president of the Advocacy Center advisory board, thanks everyone for their work. (Bottom row, left) Fall River Department of Social Service Director Sandy Fitzsimmons chats with board member Len Baxendale and his wife from Attleboro. (Bottom row, center) Leslie Knowles, Senator Menard, Bristol County District Attorney Sam Sutter and Executive director of the Child Advocacy Center cut the ribbon. (Bottom row, right) Husband Bourne and daughter Lisa Knowles listen as artist Susan Wilson of Acushnet, who painted the murals in the Center, talks with Leslie Knowles.