Child Abuse Center Gets State Grant

Children’s Institute International, a Los Angeles diagnostic and treatment center for child abuse victims and their families, will receive a $350,000 grant to establish the first state-funded training center for the diagnosis and treatment of child sexual abuse, Gov. George Deukmejian’s office announced Thursday.

The center will train a corps of 500 professionals in Southern California during the next year in the latest methods of diagnosing and treating child sexual abuse. In turn, they will be expected to provide training for others in their respective communities throughout a 10-county area of the southern half of the state, according to the governor’s office of Criminal Justice Planning, which announced the grant.

Plans for a second center, in Northern California, will be announced by the same office next week.

The institute, founded in 1917, is at 711 S. New Hampshire Ave. in the Wilshire District. It includes a county emergency shelter for infants and toddlers and offers day-care programs for abused children, workshops for abusive parents, and therapy for both.