CEDAR CITY — The newly hired director of the Iron County Children’s Justice Center says she’s passionate about the important work the center does to help children who are victims of abuse.
Wendy Jessen, who had worked closely with the children’s justice center over the past three years as a victim advocate with the Iron County Sheriff’s Office, started her new job as ICCJC director on Oct. 16.
Jessen said her involvement in the field started a few years ago when she first attended a “Dancing With the Community Stars” fundraiser benefiting the ICCJC (see bottom of story for details about this year’s event, which is scheduled for Tuesday night).
Jessen said she herself was a victim of sexual and physical abuse as a child, starting at age 3. Victim support and resources were very limited back in those days, she noted.
“But that’s something I’ve been involved with, ever since I really decided to delve into healing from that and going to therapy,” she added.
Jessen said that when she heard ICCJC staff members and supporters talking about the work they do while onstage during the dancing event several years ago, she became emotional.
“It was then that I realized what the CJC was and did, and having been a victim as a child myself who was unsupported by those around me, I was really impacted to learn of an organization that rallied around child victims and families to help them with resources and the investigative process,” Jessen said.
“I was just overcome with emotion just in knowing like these people do care and actually do this,” she told Cedar City News. “That’s amazing. That’s something I would love to be involved with.”
Jessen said that desire is what prompted her to apply when the victim advocate job came up with the sheriff’s office a few years later, in 2019.
Although that victim advocate position was actually under the Iron County Sheriff’s Office, Jessen said she worked out of Cedar City Police Department, primarily serving both that agency and the Enoch Police Department.
The state’s Children’s Justice Centers are administered through the Utah Attorney General’s Office through the various county attorney’s offices. The centers primarily serve minors under age 18 who are victims of alleged sexual abuse, physical abuse or who are victims or witnesses in cases involving domestic violence, drugs and internet exploitation.
According to information available on the CJC state website, the children’s justice centers operate under a model that uses a child-focused setting and a multidisciplinary approach to conduct forensic interviews and medical exams and provide counseling and other support services to victims.
“A big part of the reason we do what we do at the Children’s Justice Center is so that a child does not have to repeat their story, again and again and again,” Jessen noted.
Although her work primarily will focus on Iron County, Jessen said she will continue to work with the satellite Children’s Justice Centers in Beaver, Garfield and Kane Counties, as their combined two-year grant doesn’t expire until next June.
“Beaver and Garfield will be run by Teresa Wood in Beaver County,” Jessen said. “And then I believe Kane County is going to go under the purview of the Washington County CJC with Kristy Pike down there.”
Jessen and her husband Dan Jessen are the parents of six children, ranging in age from 21 to 11. Wendy Jessen is also the author of a book published in 2018 titled, “Hope and Healing: A Survivor’s Faith-Based Perspective on Recovering from Sexual Abuse.”
The ICCJC and its associated nonprofit foundation, Friends of the Iron County Children’s Justice Center, recently raised $32,900 during its recent benefit golf tournament. Now, they are gearing up to host what is traditionally the organization’s largest fundraiser of the year.
Tuesday night’s “Dancing with the Community Stars” event is scheduled to feature dancers Dave Staheli, Todd Boyer, Michael Bahr, Jackson Ames, Jace Burgess, Kelly Hansen, Dennie Schmidt and McKennan Hansen.
Last year’s show raised more than $100,000, organizers said. A major part of this year’s fundraising effort centers on plans to construct a larger and more functional facility to serve as the future home of the ICCJC, Jessen noted.
“They’ll take financial donations for specific dancers after you’ve watched them dance,” she said. They’ll have people’s choice and the judges’ choice winners. “It’s going to be really exciting. The theme is ‘Winter Wonderland.’”
Event details
- What: “Dancing with the Community Stars” fundraiser.
- When: Tuesday, Nov. 15, 7-9 p.m.
- Where: Heritage Center Theater, 105 N. 100 East, Cedar City.
- Admission: $15 single tickets, $50 for a family of four. All proceeds go to ICCJC.
- More information: Call Jennifer Davis, Friends of ICCJC Board President at 435-590-1317.
Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2022, all rights reserved.