By Cynthia Grau/WJEZ News

The Children’s Advocacy Center recently added a new employee to its roster.

The facility dog, Joch, joined the group in July and Judy Brucker, executive director, said the two-year-old Labrador has already shown a lot of comfort to children in need.

“We really have seen just a physical difference in these kids when they see this dog and they know he’s there and they can spend some time with him. They typically meet him prior to going into a forensic interview and more often than not, now, coming out of the forensic interview, they ask for time with Joch. Our next step will be to introduce him to the courtroom setting. There was a new law that passed that went into effect in January that allows child sexual abuse victims to be accompanied by a trained facility dog in the courtroom when they have to testify against their perpetrator,” Brucker said.

The full forum with Brucker is available at wjez.com.