The Children’s Advocacy Center of Smith County is seeking to purchase and renovate the old TCA Cable Building, 3015 S SE Loop 323 in Tyler, to provide more space for the nonprofit to children who are victims of abuse.

The Children’s Advocacy Center of Smith County is seeking the public’s help to raise funds to purchase and renovate the old TCA Cable Building for expanded services as the number of child abuse victims grows.

Terri Smith, Children’s Advocacy Center of Smith County CEO, said seven years ago, the CAC was doing 200 to 300 forensic interviews of abused children a year. Now, the staff is doing around 800 and up to 1,000 interviews annually.

“The facility that served us so well just no longer allows us the space to do the work that we need to do,” Smith said.

Deanna Sims, chief development officer at the Children’s Advocacy Center of Smith County, said the project is a $4.5 million campaign, which is expected to be complete by April for cash and pledge commitments.

The plan is to close on the sale of the building, 3015 S SE Loop 323 in Tyler, on Nov. 30. She said renovations should take about nine to 10 months.

J.E. and L.E. Mabee Foundation issued a $600,000 challenge grant last month and the advocacy center is asking the community to be involved in that process.

To meet the requirements of this grant, the CAC must raise the remaining $578,334 of renovation costs by April 13. People can contact Sims at dsims@cacsmithcounty.org or visit the website, cacsmithcounty.org, to make a donation.

The old TCA Cable building will be renovated to add forensic interview rooms, medical exam space, therapy offices, training rooms, emergency resource supply rooms, separate waiting rooms for forensic and therapy clients, as well as office space for staff and law enforcement.

Children’s Advocacy Center of Smith County’s purpose is to help child victims of physical and sexual abuse and seeks to reduce trauma through a unified effort of thorough investigations, effective prosecutions and the healing of the children and their families.

Sims said the nonprofit is currently using 8,100 square feet for programming to help abused children in need. With the move, the CAC staff and clients will have 39,000 square feet of space.

“We are a nonprofit that has to add space as programs grow. Our facilities have to expand as more children come. We have five law enforcement officers that work in our facility as well. We have 31 of our own staff that works here,” Sims said. “We’ve grown very quickly, and the large number of children we’re serving requires more space.”

She added advocacy center officials became aware of the building in the early part of this year. The owner sold it to the CAC at a reduced price.

Through the renovations, the CAC staff will add capacity for a lot of the programs already in use. This includes more medical exam space and additional therapy offices.

“We’re creating space for expansion over time,” she said. “We wanted to have something that we can use for the foreseeable future — for the next 15 to 20 years.”

Smith County District Attorney Jacob Putman said though people may think they can’t help abused and traumatized children, there is something they can do.

“The purchase of this building will be a significant step of improving Tyler and Smith County for generations to come,” Putman said.

One of the benefits is having separate waiting rooms for the victims’ initial interview, which is where kids tell stories of abuse, and other rooms dedicated to therapy, a time when children are talking through and processing issues, Sims said.

Those at the advocacy center are grateful to the community for all the support they’ve provided, Sims said.

Through the new space, community members will get to learn more about the CAC, while the center can continue to give clients privacy.