COEUR d'ALENE - A diverse committee of health care providers, law enforcement officers and nonprofit representatives are laying the groundwork for a new child advocacy center in Kootenai County.

Likely sited in Coeur d'Alene, the CAC would receive child abuse cases from all over North Idaho.

Features might include child-specific interview rooms, a family waiting area and access to health care or counseling services.

"You get all types of disciplines working together as a team," said Detective Sgt. Dave Beck of the Post Falls Police Department. "It's kind of like a one-stop-shop. Just a child-friendly environment."

The committee is meeting every month as the project moves forward. The Coeur d'Alene and Post Falls police departments, the Kootenai County Sheriff's Department, Kootenai Medical Center, Children's Village and the North Idaho Violence Prevention Center are some of the groups involved.

A location hasn't been nailed down, but the CAC might be constructed inside an existing Coeur d'Alene building. For now, funding is still in question.

"We're still in very much the planning stages," said Tracy Rudd-Heilig, sexual assault program coordinator at NIVP.

Child advocacy centers provide multiple services at a single site, committee members said. Children are interviewed in special rooms or examined by pediatricians. Counseling and social services - for both children and non-offending parents - might be based there as well.

"It's something the community needs," Beck said. "I think there's an extremely high need for it."

Idaho's first CAC was built in Boise in 1989, followed by facilities in Twin Falls, Pocatello, Idaho Falls and Nampa.

Before the centers were created, abused children were often shuttled from interview to interview, meeting with detectives, prosecutors and health care professionals, said Brandy Sutherland, Idaho Network Children Advocacy Centers coordinator.

The experience could be traumatic, and many children would change their stories as the interviewing progressed.

"Essentially, what we have found is an extreme amount of compounded trauma, and pretty high rate of recantation," Sutherland said.

Child abuse cases are common in North Idaho, detectives said. In Post Falls alone, Beck interviews about 65-70 abused children every year.

"I'm busy," he said.

Some of North Idaho's child abuse cases are moved to the CAC in Spokane, but many are handled in-house.

About three years ago, the Post Falls Police Department created a child-specific interview room - much like a miniature CAC, Beck said. The space has decorated walls and age-appropriate furniture, and is less intimidating than a standard interview room.

When a child has been physically or sexually abused, the forensic interview is often the cornerstone of the case, Beck said. Having the specialized room available is "a wonderful tool."

The Coeur d'Alene CAC will likely house similar spaces.

Ruth Willford, a registered nurse at KMC and CAC committee member, said the center should provide consistent services. The agencies want any evidence collected to stand up in court.

"The ultimate goal is to prevent child abuse," she said.

With everything under one roof, law enforcement, health care personnel and counselors can handle a case quickly and efficiently, sheriff's Detective Darrell Oyler said.

Over time, the CAS could help detectives bring more perpetrators to justice.

"We're just doing the best we can with the resources we have right now," Oyler said. "(The center) is a great, worthy project."