Each year, hundreds of children enter the court system through no fault of their own.

By then, trauma has often already set in. Maybe it’s linked to the home, a parent or guardian, spaces meant to be safe that instead cause harm.

That’s why every child needs a voice, someone to look out for them. Jessica Sandlund, executive director of Court Appointed Special Advocates DeKalb County, knows the importance of that intimately.

“I was 19 years old when I finally used my voice to share about the sexual abuse I had experienced as a child,” Sandlund said to a crowd gathered in front of the DeKalb County Courthouse in Sycamore on Wednesday. “This began my healing process. And what I have come to believe is that using our voice to share our story is often the first and most important step in our healing journey.”

The annual Hands Around the Courthouse event, cohosted with Family Service Agency, takes place during Child Abuse Prevention Month to bring awareness to the issue and highlight local resources available to help.

Sandlund has been with CASA since 2015.

“Child abuse thrives in secrecy, and oftentimes it’s a generational cycle that keeps going and going and going until someone has the courage to speak up,” Sandlund said. “Children who experience abuse face shame, guilt, fear and lies that all drive them to stay silent. Without speaking the truth, victims of abuse are stuck in that fear and sometimes all of the unhealthy coping mechanisms we use to try to survive.”

CASA advocates act as guardians ad litem for children who suffer abuse or neglect in DeKalb County. As cases move through Associate Judge Sarah Gallagher-Chami’s courtroom, CASA workers work to ensure every child gets the safety and support they deserve.

“CASA’s role in prevention for these cases is really more about preventing any further abuse,” Sandlund said. “We advocate for the children to get all of the services they need to heal, whether that be counseling, play therapy, developmental screenings, family therapy, or whatever they need. We want to ensure they have the tools and support they need to process their trauma and move forward.”

In 2025, CASA advocates, staff and volunteers helped 193 children, trained eight new volunteers to be court advocates, bringing the total to 60 volunteers, and successfully closed 50 cases in court.

CASA advocates are the “eyes and ears” for the judge, Sandlund said. They visit children at home. They monitor parental visits as parents or guardians work to rebuild relationships.

“What I’ve learned in this role is that the outcomes depend enormously on who is paying attention. Often, it’s the difference between a child who gets help and a child who doesn’t.”

—  State's Attorney Riley Oncken

Prosecutor Johanna Tracy, of the DeKalb County State’s Attorney’s Office, handles every child abuse and neglect case that comes into the county. Gallagher-Chami presides over each one.

“What that means is I see firsthand what happens when the systems around a child work,” Tracy said. “And I see what happens when they don’t, or when they’re absent. I see the cases that make the news and the ones that never do. We see children who find their voice and children who are still searching for it. We see children who are being listened to, children who are being ignored, families in crisis, families in denial and families who are trying as hard as they know how.”

Tracy said she’s been in the role for about two years. She spoke about her passion for the work, saying she believes that what happens to a child in their earliest years shapes everything that comes after.

It’s a group effort, helping children overcome abuse and end up in healthier home environments. From the Family Service Agency’s Children’s Advocacy Center and local law enforcement, to foster parents, teachers, nurses, neighbors and social workers, each advocate along the way matters, she said.

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DeKalb County State’s Attorney Riley Oncken speaks to onlookers Wednesday, April 29, 2026, during Hands Around the Courthouse at the DeKalb County Courthouse in Sycamore. The event was held to mark Child Abuse Prevention Month. (Mark Busch)

“This job for me is an honor,” Tracy said. “It is an honor to be trusted with these cases, to stand up in court on behalf of these children who could not do it for themselves, to be the person who says out loud and on the record, ‘This happened, it was wrong, and this child deserves better.’”

State’s Attorney Riley Oncken said it’s important to remember that abuse cases are happening everywhere, including in DeKalb County.

But so are the tireless efforts of institutions, lawyers, advocates and social service workers who are committed to putting children first.

“It’s exhausting, heartbreaking work done by people who care deeply about protecting kids,” Oncken said. “It’s also done by people who care about holding people accountable. I’m grateful to be in a county where those people are serious about what they do.”

A challenge to preventing and stopping child abuse is an obvious one: Children can often be too young, too afraid or without a trusted adult around, to speak up for themselves.

“What I’ve learned in this role is that the outcomes depend enormously on who is paying attention,” Oncken said. “Often, it’s the difference between a child who gets help and a child who doesn’t. So today, standing here together, that’s what we’re saying: We are paying attention.”

Child abuse is a national epidemic, Judge Gallagher-Chami said.

According to Children’s Advocacy Centers of Illinois, 1 in 10 children will be sexually abused before their 18th birthday. In fiscal 2023, 12,513 Illinois children were served by advocacy centers.

About 90% of child sexual abuse victims know their abuser in some way. In 2025, 4,826 children entered foster care in Illinois, according to the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.

As of March 31, 30 DeKalb County children are in foster care, according to DCFS data. And 92 total are receiving care for abuse or neglect.

“Child abuse can be open and obvious or veiled and concealed,” Gallagher-Chami said. “Child abuse is physical, mental, emotional. Child abuse is traumatic.”

Every child needs a champion, Gallagher-Chami said. She said local social service organizations serve children “in their darkest hours.”

It takes time to heal from trauma, Sandlund said. She called on community members to reduce the stigma of seeking services and to create safe places for children to go when they need help.

“How we show up for the children that we serve truly matters,” Sandlund said. “[...] As a community, we need to encourage one another to ask for help and to be honest with how we are really doing. We need to make it OK to not be OK.”