First Witness Background
First Witness Child Advocacy Center is located in Duluth, MN and in 2024, we moved into a new building. This new building allowed us the space to create a Cultural and Spiritual Room. We serve children who report abuse or maltreatment in Southern St. Louis County, Carlton County, and Lake County. We also occasionally work with and serve other surrounding counties.
Our vision is: “a society that supports children and ends child abuse”. This vision is embodied through our core values: treating members of the community and the people that we serve with compassion, treating people equitably, and ensuring that we develop and operate from a lens of cultural humility. We believe that cultural humility is developed through having culturally aware staff and team members, understanding power dynamics by reducing barriers, and holding our organization accountable.
First Witness became a 501c3 in 1993 and currently provides six core services, including:
•Forensic interviewing: providing a neutral, information-gathering, culturally affirmative, child-centered interview
•Family advocacy: family advocates work side-by-side with families to provide support and information for families
•Multidisciplinary team facilitation: facilitating a team of professionals who are coordinating investigations that aim to reduce trauma to the child
•Medical exams: collaborating with St. Luke’s Hospital and Essentia Health to provide forensic medical evaluations
•Mental Health: connecting children and families with trauma-informed mental health care
•Child abuse prevention: collaborating with and educating schools, families, and the community
The Cultural and Spiritual Room
It is our priority at First Witness Child Advocacy Center to serve the best interests of children and their families, including helping them feel as comfortable as possible and providing them with a safe space to heal. This includes tending to their safety and mental health needs while considering how important spiritual and cultural connections are for healing. Additionally, First Witness understands how these connections can be a source of strength for individuals and caregivers. This is why we developed a space in our new building that supports safety for children and families to find peace and comfort through their cultural and/or spiritual practices.
The space is a multicultural room for healing following abuse. The purpose of this space is to aid in healing through cultural connection and spiritual practice. The space includes a designated area for smudging, and a designated space for families to sit and meet with cultural or spiritual
supports. The room is intended to be an inviting and peaceful space where many different cultures, spiritualities, and religions can be practiced, and healing can be encouraged.
Items available to families for use in the Cultural and Spiritual Room
•Religious & spiritual texts
oThe Qur’an
oThe Torah
oThe Talmud
oThe Holy Bible
oThe Bhagavad Gita
oGateway to Knowledge Volume 1 (condensed version of the Tripitaka)
oSiree Guru Granth sahib
oThe Parent’s Tao Te Ching
oAnd more!
•Books for kids and adults on healing from abuse through multiple different religious and spiritual lenses
•Crystals and Crystal Healing book
•Tarot cards
•Smudging materials including sage, cedar, and sweetgrass
•An Ojibwa bead loom and beading supplies
•Prayer rugs (adult and child sizes)
•Yoga mat, floor pillows, and blankets
Cultural and Spiritual Trainings
First Witness provides training to spiritual leaders in our community and offers on-site or in-house sessions. Training fees are modest and can be waived to ensure cost is never a barrier. For more information, please contact training@firstwitness.org or call 218-727-8353.
Faith in Action: Keeping Children Safe in Our Churches
Safe and Strong Communities
This training is offered to adults in youth-serving agencies, churches, sports leagues, and beyond. Participants learn how to recognize, respond, and report child abuse. This is mandated reporter training and beyond; we delve into dynamics of child abuse, how to respond to a child in a trauma-informed way, red flags of child abuse, child resilience, Safe and Strong Child© body safety curriculum, and more.
This training meets the mandated reporter training requirements listed Minnesota State Statutes (260E.065).
Cultural and Spiritual Resources
Understanding ACEs in Indigenous Communities
The page presents studies, frameworks, history, a video on prevention of ACEs in Indigenous communities, and more. Healing Frameworks: Understanding ACEs in Indigenous Communities…
Healing Trauma Through Islamic Counseling
Canadian organization of therapists, counselors, and social workers for those seeking Islamic faith-based counseling. – Their website states they can offer services outside of Canada,…
Ethnic Minority Community Treatment Needs for Child Sexual Abuse Victims/Survivors
This articles discusses the impacts of child sexual abuse on ethnic minority groups and how treatment needs may be different for these communities and provides…