COEUR d'ALENE - The northern Idaho Children's Advocacy Center opened Wednesday, a facility where children who are being evaluated for suspected abuse will be interviewed by police and examined by medical professionals in a safe and child-friendly environment.

The new center, located next to Kootenai Medical Center, was designed to minimize or prevent additional trauma to a child during the process of an investigation.

"We can get the information we need recorded with a very soft approach" at the new center, said Coeur d'Alene Police Chief Wayne Longo. "I know my detectives are going to use the heck out of this place."

At the center, there are two interview rooms, each equipped with child-friendly furnishings and discreet audio and video recording equipment. One room is specifically designed for younger children and the other is for older children.

The recording equipment is vital because it will provide a permanent evidentiary record, and reduce the number of times the children must explain what happened to them.

There also is a medical exam room with equipment designed for children. Previously, children in need of forensic medical exams were taken to an emergency room or a doctor's office. This will allow additional privacy and an evidence collection process consistent with forensic collection requirements.

"The community has been trying to get something like this center going for a really long time, like more than 10 years," said Teri Farr, president of the Kootenai Health Foundation.

Often when children are interviewed at a police station they feel like they've done something wrong, she said.

"Children shouldn't be intimidated in the process of telling the story of what happened to them," Farr said.

"This certainly isn't the sheriff's office," said Maj. Ben Wolfinger, of the Kootenai County Sheriff's Department. "That eases people's fears."

Parents feel better during an investigation if they can see their child is in a more comfortable environment, he said.

In the past six years, Wolfinger said, the sheriff's department alone has investigated 80 to 90 cases where children were victims of alleged sexual abuse.

"There's a lot of shame with these types of crimes," said Tracy Rudd-Heilig, sexual assault program coordinator at the North Idaho Violence Prevention Center.

Callie Weatherford-Ketner, a crisis advocate for the Coeur d'Alene Tribe, said, "Often times the parents don't know where to turn next, and they don't know what their resources are."

The center will help parents with those needs.

A committee consisting of child-protection workers, area law-enforcement officials, mental-health providers, medical providers, victims' advocates, and prosecutors met monthly since February 2011 discussing the creation of a center.

Both Boise and Nampa have child advocacy centers.

"It's been long overdue to bring one here to Coeur d'Alene," said Rob Braniff, of the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare. He supervises a group of child-welfare workers who investigate allegations of abuse and neglect.

The center, Braniff said, "will allow multiple agencies to work together under one roof."

It also will provide important consistency and efficiency in this type of abuse investigation, Braniff said.

Last year, Kootenai Health was approached to help start a center in Coeur d'Alene, and the Kootenai Health Foundation agreed to provide a challenge grant, as well as to help seek and administer additional funding.

Funding for the center came from the Inland Northwest Community Foundation, $30,000; the Coeur d'Alene Tribe, $5,000; the Kootenai Health Foundation, $60,000; the Governor's Task Force on Children at Risk, $10,000; as well as from various individuals and community groups.

Kootenai Health provided the location. Additionally, the hospital will help to operate the center under the management of Kootenai Behavioral Health.

The primary service area is Kootenai County, but the center also will be utilized by Boundary, Bonner, Shoshone and Benewah counties, as well as the Coeur d'Alene Tribe.

Farr estimated that at least 100 to 120 cases of alleged abuse will be evaluated at the center in the first year of operation.