Day One in Dallas: Choosing Compassion and Strengthening the Team That Protects Children

Protecting children requires more than the work of any one professional, organization, or agency. It requires a coordinated team whose members understand one another's roles, share current knowledge, and remain committed to learning together.

That commitment brought a multidisciplinary group from West Georgia to Dallas for the 37th Annual Crimes Against Children Conference, hosted by the Dallas Children's Advocacy Center. Nearly 5,000 child protection professionals from around the world gathered for this year's conference, which features hundreds of workshops led by experts in child abuse investigations, forensic interviewing, digital evidence, child exploitation, trafficking, victim advocacy, prosecution, medical response, and healing.

Representing West Georgia this week are professionals from the West Georgia Child Advocacy Center, Haralson County Sheriff's Office, Bremen Police Department, and Carrollton Police Department. Throughout the week, participants are attending workshops selected to strengthen both their individual professional responsibilities and the collective multidisciplinary response across Carroll, Haralson, and Heard Counties.

Choosing Compassion Over Comfort

Day One began with a powerful opening session from Tim Tebow, founder and chairman of the Tim Tebow Foundation. Throughout his remarks, Tebow challenged attendees to choose compassion over comfort and reminded the audience that protecting children requires courage, persistence, and a willingness to step into difficult places on behalf of those who cannot fight for themselves.

That message resonated deeply with our team.

Desiree Kendricks, WGACAC's CAC Program Manager and Multidisciplinary Team Coordinator, reflected:

"The work that we do is uncomfortable for most of society. We do hard things and see hard things. Sympathy and empathy can be done from a distance, but compassion cannot."

Dorien Lee, WGACAC's Rural Child and Family Advocate and Office Lead, summarized his biggest takeaway from the opening session:

"Striving to be compassionate rather than comfortable in my advocacy."

Mariana Reyes, WGACAC's Bilingual Forensic Interviewer and Advocate, echoed that challenge:

"When there is a calling to combat a social issue such as human trafficking or child sexual exploitation, one must answer and be the change we want to see in this world. Stay up to date, show up, and approach the difficulties of the work with grace."

Dalton McKinzie of the Bremen Police Department described Tebow's message as the perfect way to begin the conference:

"Tim Tebow was an amazing, powerful motivational speaker and a great way to kick off a great week."

The theme of choosing compassion over comfort carried into every workshop throughout the day.

Learning from Complex Investigations

Several members of our team attended sessions examining complex investigations that unfolded over many years. These presentations highlighted the persistence, collaboration, and victim-centered approach required to bring offenders to justice while supporting survivors.

Dalton McKinzie attended Caught After 25 Years and reflected:

"The biggest takeaway was the diligence of investigators who never truly stopped working the case and how many victims one investigation can lead to over time."

Brad Richards of the Bremen Police Department added:

"Find the evidence for these victims after years of abuse."

Nicole Wilson of the Haralson County Sheriff's Office emphasized the importance of allowing children to share their experiences at their own pace:

"The interview process with child victims has to be done with care, compassion, and an understanding of the victim's perspective. It is not a quick process and needs to be handled respectfully."

Halle Rosen of the Carrollton Police Department shared a simple but powerful reminder:

"Victims will talk when they are ready."

These reflections reinforce one of the foundational principles of the Children's Advocacy Center model: children deserve a safe environment, specially trained professionals, and the time necessary to tell their story without unnecessary pressure or retraumatization.

Understanding Grooming and Offender Behavior

Day One also challenged participants to think differently about offenders and the ways they gain access to children.

Desiree Kendricks attended sessions exploring grooming behaviors and shared:

"I didn't realize that part of grooming behavior is also grooming the environment of the victim—including the people around the child—in order to gain access."

Mariana Reyes noted that grooming is intentional and purposeful:

"The purpose of grooming is overcoming resistance, maintaining access to that child, and minimizing disclosure."

Brad Richards reflected on one of the day's offender-focused sessions:

"It's not only, 'How could someone do these things?' It is, 'How do they think the way they do?'"

Halle Rosen added another important reminder:

"Most offenders are integrated into society with jobs and families, not social outcasts on the fringe of society."

Understanding offender behavior does not excuse abuse. Rather, it equips professionals to recognize warning signs, identify patterns, and better protect children before abuse escalates.

Addressing Emerging Threats

Technology continues to reshape child exploitation investigations, and several sessions focused on rapidly emerging threats.

Mariana Reyes identified three issues that stood out most:

"Financial sextortion, sadistic online exploitation, and generative artificial intelligence are creating new and increasingly complex challenges in online child sexual exploitation."

Desiree Kendricks reflected on a session examining organized financial sextortion:

"There is no difference between organized crime and organized financial sextortion."

Dorien Lee attended sessions examining anime and hentai-related Child Sexual Abuse Material as well as missing children and gang involvement. His reflections focused on understanding the broader circumstances surrounding child victimization.

"Children can be both victims and offenders, and gaps in treatment can lead to the worst outcomes for children."

He added that hearing directly from a parent who lost her son reinforced the importance of intervention before children fall through the cracks.

"Hearing his story from his mother gave extra motivation to help these children."

National Leadership Supporting Local Work

We were also honored to hear from Teresa Huizar, Chief Executive Officer of National Children's Alliance, whose leadership continues to strengthen Children's Advocacy Centers and multidisciplinary teams across the country.

National Children's Alliance provides accreditation, training, technical assistance, advocacy, and national leadership that allows local Children's Advocacy Centers like WGACAC to continually improve services for children and families. We are grateful for NCA's ongoing investment in the Children's Advocacy Center movement and in the professionals who serve children every day.

We also extend our sincere appreciation to the Dallas Children's Advocacy Center for hosting one of the premier child protection conferences in the world. Bringing thousands of professionals together to learn, collaborate, and strengthen multidisciplinary responses ultimately benefits children and families in communities across the nation—including our own.

Bringing It Home to West Georgia

Training is about far more than professional development.

Every workshop attended, every conversation shared, and every new idea learned strengthens relationships across agencies, improves investigative coordination, and equips our multidisciplinary teams to respond more effectively to children and families experiencing abuse.

This commitment to learning together reflects the original purpose of WGACAC's CAPTA-supported multidisciplinary training initiative: building a more capable, connected, and resilient child protection system throughout Carroll, Haralson, and Heard Counties.

Throughout the week, our team will continue sharing lessons learned from Dallas and, upon returning home, participants will bring those lessons back to their agencies and multidisciplinary teams to strengthen our regional response to child abuse.

Because protecting children is never the responsibility of one person or one agency.

It is the work of one team.