Children’s of Alabama CHIPS Center Moves to Larger Space

The CHIPS Center at Children’s of Alabama has moved to new clinic space in downtown Birmingham.

Children’s Hospital Intervention and Prevention Services (CHIPS) is now located in the Arlington Business Center at 1501 4^th Avenue South. The new location is near the hospital’s main campus and offers convenient on-site parking.

The new location has dedicated areas for counseling, medical exams and administrative offices. The overall space is larger, providing more comfortable space for families during case manager updated and family conferences.

CHIPS has been an outpatient center at Children’s since 1995, where children who have experienced suspected abuse and their families impacted by suspected abuse can come for support, hope, and healing. The CHIPS staff is a team of specially trained licensed professional counselors, doctors, licensed social workers and sexual assault nurse examiners (SANE). CHIPS provides forensic medical evaluations, social work support services, counseling services and prevention education services.

“Every single child has the right to feel safe,” says CHIPS Director Deb Schneider. “Our role at CHIPS is to help children who have been abused so that they can begin the healing process, both physically and mentally. We want to help them feel safe again.”

Each year, CHIPS staff provides around 2,000 medical exams and more than 400 counseling sessions to children who have been physically or sexually abused.

The new center renovations were funded entirely by support from the community, including various individuals, organizations and foundations.