Summit County's children justice center receives national accreditation

PARK CITY — The Summit County Children's Justice Center earned national accreditation this week, becoming the first Utah agency to receive it in 20 years.

The Summit County Attorney's Office and the Solomon Children's Justice Center announced Wednesday that it received accreditation from the National Children's Alliance.

"The Children's Justice Center is the workspace for professionals serving the most vulnerable population in our community and their non-offending caregivers," the county attorney's office said in a statement.

The Summit County Children's Justice Center was established in 2012 and is the first children's justice center in Utah to seek and receive accreditation from the National Children's Alliance in more than two decades, the county said.

The "long and arduous process" for accreditation includes professional reviews of local child maltreatment teams and multidisciplinary, interagency compliance with national best practices and standards, the attorney's office said.

"We have grown from a part-time, satellite children's justice center to operating in a flagship facility, with a full-time and peer-reviewed forensic interview specialist and family advocate on staff," said center director Ted Walker.

The county attorney's office gave a special shoutout to Nicole Johansen, a master's in social work candidate performing her master's degree clinical hours with the county, whose work and initiative have taken the children's justice center "over the finish line."

"Our team of child protection professionals is first-rate. We are doing quality work and children leave our Children's Justice Center more safe and protected than when they arrive. I cannot think of a greater measure of success," Summit County Attorney Margaret Olson said.

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