Large donation helps keep Gatehouse open

Large donation helps keep Gatehouse open. The Gatehouse held an open house where a cheque for $150,000 was presented from the Toronto Police Services Board. Here, Julie Moore, child and youth services coordinator (left) and Lauren Edding-Lee, manager resources development (second from right) of the Gatehouse receive the cheque from Alok Mukherjee (right) of the Police Services Board and Inspector Doug Grady of 22 Division. Staff photo/IAN KELSO

The Gatehouse - a child-friendly, home-like location where investigating officers and child welfare personnel can interview children during abuse investigations - will be able to run this year and next, thanks to the generous donation, said Gatehouse founder Art Lockhart.

"The reality is that The Gatehouse financially operates on community grants and initiatives," Lockhart said at an open house in support of Child Abuse Awareness Month on Friday, Oct. 22. "Our operations are not the result of any core funding from a government agency and that, I think, speaks to the amazing community of staff we have here - that we're still here after 13 years without any core funding."

One of the mantras that has guided The Gatehouse through the years, added Lockhart, is that the non-profit, community-based organization came to life because the community wanted it to come to life, and has grown over the years by shedding light on the issue of child abuse.

"We're a resilient lot. There's often talk about the resiliency of the people who come through here - the child and adult victims of child abuse - but there's also a sense of resiliency in everybody connected to The Gatehouse," he said. "That somehow we're gonna figure a way out to keep on going."

For the Toronto Police Services (TPS) Board, and its chair Alok Mukherjee, the decision to help out The Gatehouse was a no-brainer - especially given the organization's close ties with police.

"It seemed to me that this is quite a unique service The Gatehouse offers, particularly in that it is community-based and not part of the Toronto Police Service," he said. "So, when we learned that they were in a bit of a desperate situation, there was no doubt in my mind that we should do what we can to save them. This is a place that shouldn't cease to exist."

The Gatehouse also fits into the model of community-based policing that the TPS board is trying to encourage more of - where policing is not just practiced out of police stations, but accomplished through partnerships within the neighbourhoods they serve, Mukherjee added.

Det. Const. Sarbjeet Sidhu, who's worked with the Sexual Assault/Child Abuse Unit at 22 Division since 2008, is one such officer who's taken her work out of the station and into the community. She said investigating the physical and/or sexual abuse of children under 16 isn't an easy job, but The Gatehouse has made it easier - for both herself and the victims she's helped.

"The whole idea is to not traumatize the child over and over again," she explained. "At the best of times, for any victim, a police station is intimidating...with kids, you've got to remember they're little people. All of a sudden they're brought to a police station after they've been hurt and traumatized, they could have a negative look on it - almost as if they've done something wrong, because they think people only go to the police station when they've done something wrong."

In that sense, The Gatehouse has proven an invaluable tool, where both police and the Children's Aid Society can conduct joint interviews with victims in child-friendly rooms equipped not only with toys and all the comforts of home to put the kids at ease, but also with state-of-the-art recording equipment to capture the children's stories as evidence.

"There, we can do an interview and if there's a disclosure to be made, we can obtain that disclosure and have it from beginning to end, which prevents the children from having to relive it over and over again," she said. "If the child identifies a perpetrator, we have evidence that's recorded and we can arrest, charge, and go through the justice system - all without the child having to retell the whole story again."

The sometimes three-hour long interviews with child abuse victims often leave Sidhu with a throbbing headache and a heavy heart, but the job is ultimately more rewarding for it, she said.

"It's hard to hear a lot of these stories, but what is most satisfying about the job is you build up a rapport and a trust with the kids and they trust you enough to tell you everything," she said. "They trust you to get the bad person who hurt them, and to make them feel safe again. The Gatehouse plays a large role in that."