Butler County is creating a new nonprofit agency to reduce the trauma for children who are victims of alleged abuse.

Joyce Ainsworth, director of county Children and Youth Services, said the Butler County Alliance for Children will improve conditions for children by consolidating what used to be separate processes into one.

Using standards set by the National Children’s Alliance, the center will use a team of child protective services workers, law enforcement, medical providers, prosecutors, victim advocates, mental health providers and staff from the new Child Advocacy Center.

“It’s a new way to investigate allegations of child abuse,” Ainsworth said.

Assistant District Attorney B.T. Fullerton said the program’s benefit to the children will, in turn, aid prosecution of defendants.

“It gives us a much more reliable and trustworthy statement of the child victim,” Fullerton said.

He said the forensic investigator will speak with the child while medical staff, the prosecutor and other team members observe through a one-way mirror.

“The idea is it’s less intimidating and more relaxed,” Fullerton said.

CYS deals with roughly 200 abuse cases each year. Ainsworth said the center won’t be able to handle all the cases initially, but will work up to that point.

She said the goal is to open the center July 1. CYS has budgeted $96,000 in 2014 for the startup costs.

Ainsworth said that money will come from $300,000 her department saved this year because of a reduced number of placements of children outside the home.

“I want to reinvest in Butler County,” she said.

Ainsworth said the alliance executive director, who would be hired soon, will search for future funds to maintain the program in following years.

The director also will look for a site where the center would operate.

Ainsworth anticipates the center would only require a second full-time employee for the agency.

However, it would be large enough to accommodate all team members from the participating government and human services agencies.

She said the alliance staff’s job would be to coordinate all the entities working on the abuse cases.

In the interim, the Nonprofit Development Corporation is providing free office space for the alliance.

The Alliance for Nonprofit Resources, which is a sister organization to the corporation, is giving administrative finance support.

According to Ainsworth, the alliance will help the child navigate a confusing system and strengthen the response to abuse allegations.

She said a side benefit would be cost savings.

Ainsworth cited a 2006 study by the National Children’s Advocacy Center and the University of Alabama indicating there is a $1,138 savings per case when the model is used versus a traditional investigation.