CornerHouse Opens Rogers Location for Child Abuse Victims

When a sexual assault involving a child takes place, Rogers Police Chief Jeffrey Beahen says that the authorities have to bring the victim to CornerHouse in downtown Minneapolis to be interviewed. But starting next week, local police can take them to the Rogers Police Department instead.

“CornerHouse downtown is the only location within Hennepin County for these interviews, and unfortunately they’ve exceeded their capacity,” Beahen said. “So, booking a time to get an interview done and to get the aftercare done for our outlying suburbs or outlying communities – very, very difficult. So decentralizing that, bringing it out to our communities, where the scheduling is much easier, it’s easier to get there, it’s easier to get their families to the aftercare, is paramount to the success of this program.”

Officials from CornerHouse and Hennepin County gathered at the government center Monday morning to make the announcement.

In 2017, officials say there were more than 20,000 reports of child maltreatment in Hennepin County.

Dozens of blue signs placed on the lawn outside of the Hennepin County Government Center Monday morning represent thousands of children abused in Minnesota each year. Officials in Rogers say the new CornerHouse satellite center will have a big impact on the northwest metro.

“They can come to Rogers, we have parking available,” Beahen said. “Walk in, do your interview right there. And more importantly, long-term, we’ll have the aftercare — the medical exams, the mental health practitioners, the forensic workers, the social workers, and others that will care for victims.”

Beahen says they still need money for this project, so on April 15 at 7 p.m. the Rogers Rotary Club is organizing a concert called “A Night of Hope and Healing” to raise money for the cause.