Christian A. Ray, Intern - thefranklinpressnews@gmail.com
After 33 years of serving Macon County, KIDS Place recently moved to a new home.
Executive Director Alisa Ashe said she looks forward to the future opportunities the new location will bring for the nonprofit organization.
“I think it was Eleanor Roosevelt who said, ‘We must care for all children because our children must grow up in a world with all children,’” said Ashe.
KIDS Place (Kids Interdisciplinary Services) is a nonprofit agency founded by concerned citizens who wanted to improve services for abused and neglected children in Macon County. As a Children’s Advocacy Center, KIDS Place provides a central location for abused children to go rather than having to go from agency to agency during an investigation. A trained team of professionals can interview children about reports of abuse, perform medical exams and provide counseling.
The organization is made up of representatives from the Department of Social Services, law enforcement agencies, the District Attorney’s office, pediatricians, child therapists and more. There is no charge to KIDS Place clients for counseling or other services. In 2024, KIDS Place served 176 children and families, and so far in 2025, they have served 167 children and families.
“I want the community to know how much we truly appreciate how much they’ve helped keep KIDS Place in operation for 33 years. That’s unusual for a nonprofit. We could not do that without the care and compassion that our community has for children. I hear often that children are the future, and they are, but guess what? Children are today too,” said Ashe.
Ashe said KIDS Place is a unique public private partnership. “We provide the county and the town with services that they can’t provide in house. Also, by being a nonprofit, we’re neutral. So, the services we provide, we don’t work for DSS. We’re not CPS, we’re not law enforcement. We just try to help find the truth. But the work we do is also very vital for child protective services, law enforcement and the DA’s office to be able to do their part of the case.”
Ashe said KIDS Place is a team-oriented nonprofit. Beth Miller is the lead child advocate who works alongside families every step of the way whether that be finding new items of clothing for children, being there for them during forensic interviews, staying by their side during medical examinations and just overall checking in on them through the entire process. Cheryl Talley, the lead forensic interviewer is who Ashe credits as the one who wrangles the rest of the team together when it is needed. Princess Bonnie, the resident dog that keeps KIDS Place employees happy and busy, is an important part of the team too.
New location
Earlier this year, KIDS Place moved from its former location on West Main Street to 37 Georgia Road, formerly Dr. Jim Davis’ dental office.
“We are just over the moon happy with this new location, because it is more than doubling our square footage which gives us more space to provide services for children and families,” said Ashe. “It gives us room to grow.”
Ashe also thinks the new location is more convenient while still being in a location that helps provide privacy and confidentiality to families. “We had a lot of separation at the old place … With the new location being spread across two buildings, we could have therapy going on, forensic interviews and a medical examination at the same time if we needed to,” Ashe explained.
“At the old location if therapy was going on, but we received an emergency call, we would have to go in and tell the therapist, ‘Hey, could you wrap this up?’ This place is a lot more family friendly.” The new location includes a resource library on the lower level.
KIDS Place works with Blue Ridge Health to provide therapy for families and children. “The therapist that we work with is incredible, she has been trained and has various evidence-based models for treating childhood trauma. She is simply so incredible I wish we could clone her,” Ashe said.
For medical examinations, KIDS Place partners with Child Medical Collaborative Inc., which works specifically with cases of child abuse and provides specialized medical examinations for Child Advocacy Centers.
Information: KIDS Place, 828-524-3199 or kidsplacecac.org. In case of emergency: 911.