ALBANY — The Lily Pad and the Sunshine Center, two Albany centers to interview or examine child victims of sexual abuse, signed a memorandum of understanding Thursday for the Lily Pad to also take on the Sunshine Center’s role effective June 1.

The move is designed to reduce the number of visits sexual abuse victims will have to make as part of the investigative process and will lessen stress and trauma on the children from having to be questioned or examined at separate centers, officials with the organizations said.

Currently, forensic exams are done at the Lily Pad, while interviews with the children are done at the Sunshine Center. The move will effectively dissolve the Sunshine Center, Open Arms Inc. Executive Director Fonda Strong said. Open Arms is the governing board for the Sunshine Center.

Both centers’ boards have been discussing the possibility for about a year now, and they signed a memo Thursday morning to begin interviewing children at the Lily Pad beginning June 1.

“Everybody around the table decided that would be a good decision because everything would be in one location,” Strong said.

“We’re at peace,” she said about the cessation of the Sunshine Center’s existence.

Lily Pad Executive Director Karen Kemp said after the year of discussions, the two boards felt good about combining the two centers.

“Finally, we felt that the timing was right for this,” she said, adding that the collaboration would provide an opportunity for more cooperation between the two boards.

Dougherty County Police Chief Don Cheek explained that all law enforcement agencies in Albany and Dougherty County — from the school system police to the Dougherty County Sheriff’s Office — would have access to the Lily Pad for sexual assault cases involving children.

“We just feel it’s going to be a positive move — a good direction — and we’re excited about it from the law enforcement side and from their (the children’s) side as well,” said Cheek, who was present for the signing Thursday morning. “Police stations have the tendency to be kind of scary to children at best.

“We just see it as a very, very positive move.”

Open Arms officials will remain part of the “protocol” for the Lily Pad, Strong said, which meets twice a month to discuss the center’s cases.