Pioneers in the Field
In honor of Women’s History Month, CornerHouse is highlighting some incredible women who have pioneered our field. First up is the incomparable Anne Lukas Miller!
Who is Anne Lukas Miller?
Since joining the CornerHouse staff in 1993, Anne has conducted over 2,500 interviews with children, adolescents, and vulnerable adults, resulting in a career total of more than 3,500 interviews. Anne is also the co-developer and an ongoing facilitator of the CornerHouse training program for mandated reporters. Anne graduated with honors from Southwest State University in Marshall, Minnesota, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology with a Social Work emphasis and a minor in Psychology. When Anne came to CornerHouse, she had over 10 years of experience in juvenile probation, adolescent residential treatment, and county-administered social services. She worked for four years as a Child Protection/Child Welfare worker, and five years supervising the Children and Family Services programs in Chippewa County, Minnesota.
How did you get started in the field?
Since I was little, I have always wanted to work with kids - always and forever! In college, I was initially drawn to CPS and ended up working there for 9 years in that field as well as the child welfare field. I found that I was drawn not to just working with kids but with the parents as well. Just knowing you can have some kind of impact through caregivers and children as well. In my eyes, children are indicative of hope. They are hope personified! I continued to do CPS for a while until I heard about CornerHouse. CornerHouse was started in 1989 and I ended up joining the team in 1993. Back then, CornerHouse was half the size that it is now, but it's still in the same building. From the time I walked in the door it felt like it was where I belonged. It felt comfortable and that it was meant to be! I have been at CornerHouse since and have never questioned that this is where I should stay. I enjoy my work and find that it is not just about my personally, but I want it to be an experience that can impact these kids and adolescents and vulnerable adults. This field and those I meet are constantly challenging me but it's an area that needs strength and advocacy.
“Not everyone gets to spend their worklife doing what they love.”
How much has the field changed since you started?
Since I started, the field has changed a lot but also not that much! I think the concept is still the same - the idea that a Child Advocacy Center is a place that brings together professionals to work together and reduce the trauma is still very much prominent! However, the actual work has expanded quite a bit. When I first started at CornerHouse, I had the title of Child Interview Specialist. There was very limited knowledge of a forensic interviewer. Back then, we primarily interviewed kids under the ages of 10 and 12. One of the major changes that I noticed is the addition of adolescents and vulnerable adults and just the knowledge that the trauma can impact adults as well. In my opinion, using the term Child Advocacy Center to describe CornerHouse is just not correct - we are much more than that. We work with children and adolescents and adults and professionals and so many more groups, we do a lot these days. The field has become smarter and more significant. Of course what CornerHouse has started is still there, we have learned and grown but we haven't strayed from the roots.
“We continue to find out what the needs of the child and parents are.”
Where do you want the field to go from here?
I think the obvious and what will always come to mind is that there needs to be more resources including the funding to support the resources within the community! CornerHouse protocol can be used anywhere, we have trained in Japan and Colombia! But, knowing that the protocol has to be adjusted to different communities and cultures and having the resources to expand on that would be immense. By having the resources and expanding, we can hopefully change the perspective on systems (child protection, criminal, juvenile, etc.). There are assumptions that victims are lying and this comes from not understanding the development and developmental issues. Growing that understanding and balancing it with a systems that takes into consideration development and protection is the path we need to go down. Child development should be general knowledge and everyone should be trained in prevention and knowing the signs - this stuff happens and this is what it looks like. We just need to make this available to everyone - from the super small CACs in the US to the big but underfunded public departments internationally!
Is there one moment throughout your career that has stuck with you?
Oh, there are lots! One story that sticks out to me is back when I first started - back then we each had our own extension and the phone with the cords. I remember it was after my very first interview at CornerHouse and I'm sitting there and I get a call. It was a little girl that I had interviewed and she had left me a message and said, "I want to talk to Anne. I've been trying to call you but I can't and my mom is helping me now. I just want to say you turned my life forward."
But it's not just the one child that does this. They don't have to recognize me or know my name or anything. You know, right about the time you start to feel incompetent - 10 minutes with a 3 year old and you're questioning your entire career and skills. But, right about that time you start to feel defeated or hopeless or overwhelmed, you have some interaction with a child that exudes hopefulness and it gives you a new meaning. A child thanks you for listening to them, or they ask if they can stay with you or if you can go with them or even asks you to play with them. They can spend an hour talking about the most gut wrenching thing but as soon as it's done they bounce back and ask to play. That's all it takes for you to say yes, there's always another one that gives you a reason to keep going.