When Erma Driver was looking for a job in 2009, she wanted to do something where she could make a difference.

She found it in a small office complex on Manor Drive as executive director of the CAP Center, a non-profit organization that helps children who are the victims of child abuse and their parents.

“I went to a website and learned what they do here, and I was fascinated,” she said. “I kind of came to the interview looking to hear from them; what they thought about the CAP Center. After having met the board of directors and some of the staff, I was really convinced this would be a good place for me to work.

“I knew people who had been abused as children or had been involved with domestic violence. I knew or had experience in a number of the topics being serviced by the CAP programs a number of the programs,” she said.

Child abuse, she said, can be a difficult topic for people.

“It’s very difficult to discuss sometimes,” she said. “It’s not easy for people to talk about, that they are either abusers or have been abused. Or even the ramifications on how to fix it, and so we’re able to do that through our education and our experience and most importantly, our compassion.

“We feel good, the staff and myself, about what we’re able to accomplish, and that is to offer hope to families,” she said. “We’re very compassionate about how we serve the community, and we do have to be chosen; this is not something anyone can do, in my opinion.”

The CAP Center was founded in 1985 by Vicksburg businessmen to address child abuse, Driver said, adding the center celebrated its 30th anniversary in July.

“The Exchange club was instrumental in getting it started; the National Exchange Club’s platform is child abuse prevention, and that club, along with the Warren County Youth Court and some other attorneys in the area, formed the Warren County Child Abuse Prevention Center.” she said. “We changed the name in 2011 because the center encompasses more now than child abuse prevention.

She describes the CAP Center as a “wrap-around service” offering a number of programs and services for parent education, mentoring programs for children teens, and a pregnancy prevention program in cooperation with the Vicksburg Warren School District, that provides baby simulators pregnancy vests to give junior high school student an idea of what it’s like to be a teen parent.

It also provides supervised visitation for parents who want to spend time with their children who have been removed from the home, and holds a weeklong summer camp for children.

“We served over 3,000 people last year through our programs, which is phenomenal for an agency this size,” she said.

“We have fundraising events like our charity luncheon, memorial flag day, and party in the park at Catfish Row for Child Abuse Prevention Month,” she said. “We are in the middle of our adopt a family for Christmas program. The party is Dec. 10, and we’re asking for volunteers and donations. It will be at the (Vicksburg) City Auditorium.

Driver said most of the referrals to the CAP Center come from other agencies, primarily the Mississippi Department of Human Services.

“They turn them over to us and we do the fact finding with CASA volunteers,” she said, adding the CAP Center workers determine if a complaint filed through DHS is child abuse. If abuse is found, she said, the matter is turned over to Youth Court.

CASA volunteers, she said, are special court-appointed special advocates for children.

“The CASA program focuses on the best interests of the child,” she said.

Driver, who is a guardian ad litem with youth court, and qualified to speak for a child in court, said every CASA volunteer is a guardian ad litem and has to be sworn in by court. She said people must have 30 hours of training to be a CASA volunteer, adding the CAP Center provides CASA training here and in Hinds County and Warren County Youth Court provides training once a year for people interested in being a CASA volunteer.

“We make lots and lots home visits,” she said. “That’s why volunteers are so important. Our staff is small. We served 107 children last year. We work as a team.”

She said the organization has been successful recruiting volunteers, adding it now has CASAs in other counties working with the center, and that number has increased since last year.

Driver said the goal of the CAP Center is to see families reunified, and the parent education program and parent life skills, programs enable parents to learn how to parent better.

The 15-session parenting education classes, she said, involve child development, anger management, to styles of parenting, how to discipline children —what is appropriate, what is inappropriate, and the parent-child relationship.

Parent life skills, she said, is a 12-month program pairs the parent or parents with a coordinator who is responsible for connecting them with resources and teaching them parenting and life skills — managing their time, balancing family and work, finding employment and how to provide a well-balanced meal for the children.

“It’s successful, but it’s so in depth we can only take 12 families at a time,” she said.

Driver said she enjoys her work and finds it challenging, especially meeting the goal of keeping the program funded.

She said United Way of West Central Mississippi has been on board with the program from its start, and she has an excellent board of directors headed by president Randy Gay.

“It can be stressful, but if you’re passionate about what you do, you’ll find a way.”