HOLYOKE — Learning that two young girls were being abused while living with a Northampton man, Donna Lloyd turned to the Northwestern District Attorney’s Office, and its Children’s Advocacy Center in Franklin County, for help in bringing the children’s suffering to light.

“It was very scary for the girls and I to meet everybody in the Children’s Advocacy Center,” said Lloyd, the keynote speaker at the annual Child Abuse Awareness Month breakfast Friday at the Log Cabin in Holyoke. However, she added, “Justice would not have been served if they had not” been able to tell their story to the center’s compassionate staff members.

Lloyd’s assistance in bringing the abuse to light in May 2015 helped lead to the December conviction of Stanley Michalski on four counts of aggravated rape of a child, one count each of indecent assault and battery of a child, indecent assault and battery on a child younger than 14 and disseminating matter harmful to minors, as well as abuse of a third teenage girl that was uncovered during the investigation. A judge sentenced Michalski to 20 to 25 years in prison, plus 10 years probation with special conditions.

“It was a victory for all of us,” Lloyd said. “Now the girls are healing, they’re doing wonderfully.”

The breakfast serves as a major fundraiser for the center’s Northampton counterpart and was attended by more than 250 people, including those from law enforcement, social services and education, and municipal leaders such as Easthampton Mayor Karen Cadieux, Northampton Mayor David Narkewicz and Belchertown Selectwoman Brenda Aldrich. Though the center works closely with the district attorney, it is a separate nonprofit with a budget under $100,000.

Since 2006, the Children’s Advocacy Center on Elm Street in Northampton, and a new home that opened last year on Wisdom Way in Greenfield, have become places where director Susan Loehn said children can get forensic medical examinations and mental health evaluations in a home-like setting, and referrals for services to help them heal. These child-friendly places have murals in the interview room and are less scary than going to a hospital, police station and other offices to meet with doctors, therapists and investigators, Loehn said.

Sally Griggs, the president of the board of directors for the Children’s Advocacy Center, said 101 children were interviewed at the Hampshire County home in 2016, and 1,062 children have been interviewed there in the 11 calendar years it has been open. More than half are under 12.

“Truly there is a need for the services we provide,” Griggs said.

With a mission to end and prevent child abuse, District Attorney David Sullivan said, the centers reduce the level of victim trauma. One interview can be conducted and recorded by a professional, rather than under the old system in which children would face multiple interviews at multiple locations.

“They have one place to go that is safe and family friendly,” Sullivan said.

Assistant Northwestern District Attorney Linda Pisano, chief of the child abuse unit who prosecuted the Michalski case, said Lloyd was a consummate advocate for the girls, with additional support coming from the western Massachusetts chapter of Bikers Against Child Abuse.

In this and other cases, she said the homes play a critical role, with furniture and toys that provide a comfortable setting for young victims. And then, of course, there are people who listen to them with care.

Lloyd said even though the girls were frightened, one of them after the interview told her “it made me feel good, it was like taking a weight off my shoulders.”

“These people make you feel like part of the team, that you matter, that you’re important,” Lloyd said.

The breakfast also honored social worker Debi Belkin with the Ellen Sedlis Award for her 30 years of advocacy and dedication to children, and Pisano with the Champion for Children Award.

In addition to the breakfast, the centers depend on some state money, a grant from the Massachusetts Children’s Alliance, other foundation grants and fudnraisers, including one coming up at the Platform Sports Bar in Northampton coinciding with next month’s Kentucky Derby.

“We are able to change children’s lives every day because the community supports our work,” Loehn said.

Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com

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