By Tammi Pitzen, Executive Director of the Children’s Advocacy Center of Jackson County
On June 2, 2018 a great supporter of the Children’s Advocacy Center and the children we serve, left this life. Robert Blair Doolen passed away at home with family by his side.
Bob was born Sept. 27, 1939 in Aurora, Illinois to Helen Blair Doolen and Harold Morris Doolen, Sr. The family moved to Billings, in 1941. Bob graduated from Billings Senior High School in 1957. He attended the University of Minnesota where he earned a Bachelor of Science with Distinction in 1961 and a Master of Science in 1963.
Bob was devoted to his wife Karen. They were together for a life time. Literally. They met in high school. It was beautiful to see them together.
Bob volunteered his time and knowledge to the CAC, helping to create some of our policies and guiding us through setting up an avenue to receive donations of stocks and investments, but even beyond that, he was an Ambassador for our agency. It was not uncommon for Bob and his wife Karen, who serves on our Advisory Council, to bring their friends to events sponsored by the CAC or to bring them to the CAC for a tour and to learn more about our services.
The CAC was not the only benefactor of Bob’s talent, time and treasure. The Holly Theatre, the Asante Foundation, the YMCA in Billings Montana, the First Presbyterian Church in Medford, the Rotary, the Medford Budget Committee and the Medford Hospital Facilities Board, in addition to the Children’s Advocacy Center of Jackson County, all received the benefit of Bob’s generosity, kindness and talents.
We will miss Bob. His gentle spirit. His never-ending generosity and loyalty. His friendly smile. His willingness to always help. His attention to details. His guidance.
As a new Executive Director four or so years ago, I remember being very thankful to have such a wonderful man and his lovely wife Karen helping me to find my footing. Now looking back, it is amazing the thousands of kids that have been impacted by this gentle, friendly, unassuming man. His work helped them find safety. His work helped them find their voice. His work helped build community. His work helped to restore good health for many.
He has left a legacy of health, happiness and safety for many of the children in our community. THANK YOU. And thank you, Karen, for sharing him with our community and for bringing him with you when you joined the Children’s Advocacy Center family.
By Tammi Pitzen, Executive Director of the Children’s Advocacy Center of Jackson County — from her speech at our October, 2017 Cherish a Child Luncheon
A wise man looked at the response in place in Jackson County for victims of child abuse and thought there was opportunity to improve this response.
That wise man was Mark Huddleston, or as we like to refer to him, Our Founding Father.
I am so thankful for his vision. His vision became the Jackson County Child Abuse Task Force.
In March 1991 the Children’s Advocacy Center was opened. The Center had two employees. The only statistic that we kept was that 229 cases were staffed by the multi-disciplinary team. In 1991 our budget was $56,000. The next year the budget increased slightly and we staffed 236 cases and there were 167 interviews completed.
In the 1993-94 fiscal year, the state of Oregon decided to get serious about how it handled child abuse cases and passed HB 5061. This bill established the Child Abuse Multidisciplinary Intervention program and provided MDT’s across the state with funding. This funding has continued and provides sustainability to services provided in our community to victims of child abuse.
That same year, the CAC of Jackson County began offering therapy on-site under a contract. In 1994 the CAC of Jackson County became one of the very first centers in the country to become an accredited member of the National Children’s Alliance. We also purchased the building that we still reside in at 816 W. Tenth Street.
Along the way we added services. We increased the number of children served. We increased the budget. Growing. Stretching. To serve the abused children in our community.
In 1997 we began doing medical exams utilizing local pediatricians. The next year we added a nurse and an interviewer to staff and hired the first office manager. At that time the position was called an administrative secretary. Some people may not know this, but that first office manager was Laura Horton, who is now our Board President.
In 1999 we entered into our first partnership with Asante Health System. They provided a full time pediatrician to provide medical evaluations to abused children.
In the years to come, we added on to our space. We even expanded across the parking lot.
Today the CAC has 15 employees. We have three full time therapists. We have two medical providers and, for the first time in a long time, our medical clinic is providing services for 40 hours a week. We have one and a half forensic interviewers. One of them is bilingual. Jennifer is the first bilingual forensic interviewer on the Jackson County MDT.
We have a Family Support Team that provides support and advocacy services to abused children and their non-offending caregivers in Jackson County. There are 5 members of this team. Four employed by the CAC, and one is part of a special project with Community Works.
We have an outreach team made up of a development director, an outreach coordinator and two contractors working on prevention and community education.
We have an executive director and an office manager.
We have a board made up of 18 extraordinary community members and an advisory council made up of ten very wise advisors.
Stay tuned. We need to grow a little more to meet the increasing needs of the abused children we serve.
Our theme this year is “Planting a Seed”. I decided to do some research using my top advisor, Google. Here is what I learned:
Plants cannot grow strong without proper care.
Plants can’t take care of themselves.
Some plants are thorny and seem to lash out at anyone who comes near, but these same plants grow into some of the prettiest, sturdiest, and sweetest smelling flowers.
Plants cannot find their own water or their own light or their own environment in which to grow.
If you want tulips in the spring, you have to get your hands dirty in the fall.
Sometimes you need to clear weeds away so that the plant can thrive.
With those concepts in mind, let’s think about abused children and how this theme might fit:
A child cannot grow strong without proper care.
A child can’t take care of themselves without some help.
Sometimes the child who needs the most love asks for it in the most unlovable ways…but just like that thorny plant…if we nurture and care for that child and give that child love, he can grow into this amazing functioning adult.
Sometimes you need to clear the hurts away so a child can thrive.
In last year we served 695 children and 414 non-offending caregivers with nearly 5,000 services. Amazing. 1,109 seeds planted.
We are here because of support from the community. We are here because there are people who want to help abused children recover from their trauma.
I will be honest. It has been a hard month for children in Jackson County. There are many seeds that need to be sowed. Many hurts that need to be cleared away.
I am so thankful that our staff and our MDT–our partners here–are able to show incredible strength and love for the tender souls of the children suffering from trauma from abuse.
Child Abuse happens. It happens here. It happens way too frequently. When I am still…when it is quiet…and I am alone with my thoughts…I am thankful, not discouraged. I am thankful that I live my life in a community where children are priority.
I am thankful that I live my life surrounded by “farmers” planting seeds of hope for the future.
Child Abuse is a community problem and requires a community response.
My promise to you—as a community partner, a MDT member, a staff member, a CAC volunteer— is that every single day I will meet you in the garden. Ready to get my hands dirty. Ready to clear away the hurts.
If you would like to make a donation to Cherish a Child and support the CAC’s work of healing and preventing child abuse, please make a donation of any amount below.
By Tammi Pitzen, Executive Director of the Children’s Advocacy Center of Jackson County
In 1989, I started this quest into the field of child abuse as an intern on the Ouachita Parish Sheriff’s Office child abuse team. It was made up of two women detectives. I graduated in 1990 from Northeast Louisiana University. (They changed their name sometime in the later 90’s, but I refuse to play along. My degree says NLU, and so that is who they will always be to me!).
On December 26, 1990, I began working for the Office of Community Services in Vernon Parish and briefly closed my eyes. When I opened them again, it was 26 later and here I am in Oregon.
This work was meant to be a temporary passage — not a lifetime passion. December 26th I will embark on my 27th year of working on my behalf of abused children.
As I sit down to write this, and reflect on the last 26 years, I recognize that many things have changed for me. I started out making less than $12.50 an hour. I just did the math and that is shocking to me. If I am honest, I can’t remember how much I made, but at the end of ten years, I was making less than $12.50 an hour.
I started out in this field at the age of 21, single, childless, and ready to take on the world. I had no responsibilities to anyone else and so I worked. A lot. I worked weekends. I worked late. I took work home with me. I will say, that part does not seem to have changed that much.
26 years ago, there were no cell phones. I would go out for the day to locate families, signing out on a white board, and just assumed that if I didn’t come back, someone would eventually come to look for me. Not that they would have found me as, most of the time, I just signed out “in the field”. Depending on the day, it could have literally been a field, but most of the time, it just meant “out of the office working”.
26 years ago, there was no GPS system, so I would navigate with the latest parish map. 26 years ago, I planned my life around a “pager” schedule. I would literally sit around and wait for the pager to go off on my “on-call” weeks.
26 years ago, most of the training was on the job training and the initial training I received, before going out and investigating life and death crimes, was on constructing genograms. (The social workers reading this will know what that is, and smile, and recognize that it would not help me in deciphering timelines or pattern bruising).
Within six months of this first job, everything about me changed. I was no longer who I thought I was. This work changes you.
No. Actually, the children do that to you.
To this day, there are eight children from two families that flash into my mind every night before I go to sleep. They made me into a better case worker. Their parents made me more compassionate and empathetic. Those kids never got to go home or at least, not until their 18th birthday.
In my first year, I worked near fatal child abuse cases and, within my first year and a half, I had worked fatal cases.
The smell of a hospital still evokes images and a panicked feeling surrounding my first fatal child abuse case. Surprisingly, I didn’t interact much with law enforcement while investigating that case. I do remember having to repeatedly call and basically camp out at the police station to get a report and to get a copy of the coroner’s findings.
I do remember my shaking hands as I tried to draw the injuries I could see on the child’s body. Another skill that none of my initial training taught me. And I remember crying myself to sleep as I imagined what had happened that caused her to take her last breath.
It was a pivotal moment. At this point, caseworkers either move on to some other work or decide what adjustments they will need to make in order to stay in.
Upon reflection, I have learned so much. Here are 26 things I have learned in 26 years:
1. At some point in life, you have to decide if making a lot of money is your driving force or if it is finding your purpose. Sometimes you are super lucky and your purpose will allow you to make a lot of money.
2. Sometimes your passion chooses you. And usually when you are not paying attention.
3. If you are going to make a difference, you have to take care of yourself. I always thought it was crazy that the stewardess on the plane tells you that, if you are sitting next to a child and the air masks drop, put yours on first. Now, I totally get it. You will do no one any good if you are sick and unable to function.
4. For the most part, people do the best they can with what they are given—this includes parents of abused children.
5. Sometimes milk and cookies is the answer — no matter what the question.
6. Spilled milk is not a crisis or the end of the world. Neither is spilled red Kool-Aid.
7. If we listen closely, children will tell us what they need. And part two of that is that sometimes they tell us through methods other than words.
8. Adults are always in control and in charge in any interaction with children. It does not matter if it is an abuse scenario or just regular life.
9. Very few mistakes made are mistakes that can’t be corrected.
10. Sometimes you get “do overs” in life. Always take them.
11. Wolves really do come in sheep’s clothing. Every single time I am surprised by it when it happens.
12. Life is good when you expect the best all the time, even when people disappoint you. Being surprised by the wolf in sheep’s clothing does not make you naïve or ignorant.
13. Everyone has something to give and no matter what it is they are giving, it has value. It is important to let them give.
14. Children who are abused did not ask for that abuse nor did they do anything to cause the abuse to happen. The brokenness that is left after a child is abused can be repaired.
15. Sometimes everything IS awesome. Enjoy those times!
16. Sex offenders look like everyone else.
17. An abused child deserves the same things that any other child has.
18. The world-wide web is not the enemy. The key is supervising our children and monitoring their actions on the internet.
19. Kids will teach you what you need to know to love them.
20. Judgements get in the way of doing our best work with families.
21. Don’t get caught up in leaving a legacy or a mark on the world. Focus on doing what is “right” and “kind” in the moment and your mark will be left.
22. Providing structure provides safety.
23. Abuse in your childhood does not define who you are. It usually has nothing to do with who you are and more to do with who the abuser is.
24. Listen to everything your child tells you, as if it is the most important thing in the world, so they will tell you the important things when they come up. Otherwise they may get filtered out.
25. Never underestimate the impact of being kind to someone.
26. Terrible awful things happen to the best people. It really isn’t about what is fair or what is right. It is about what you do next. Do you choose to stay exactly where the terrible awful thing left you. Choose to rise above and beyond.
And I want to add one more that has saved me many times: Never, ever take yourself too seriously. When you can recognize your weaknesses and your mistakes and forgive yourself those missteps, it allows others to do the same for themselves
While many things have changed in the last 26 years, the one thing that remains constant is this: Abused children need each of us.
We — as in all of us — are the ones that can change the trajectory of the life of an abused child. Don’t let anyone tell you it is not your business. It is your business.
It has been a long rewarding 26 years. I am hoping I have more years to give. As I enter in my 27th year, I am humbled and thankful for the opportunity to do this work in this community.
I am extremely proud of the staff, Board, Advisory Council, volunteers, donors and Multi-disciplinary team at the Children’s Advocacy Center.
Together we can make our world a better, safer place for children in Jackson County. We depend on each of you to be able to provide abused children with interviews, therapy, medical care and support services.
Tammi Pitzen and her co-workers at the beginning of her career
By Tammi Pitzen, Executive Director of the Children’s Advocacy Center of Jackson County
As I sit behind my computer staring at a blank screen I am very humbled and possibly somewhat overwhelmed.
Today I am writing about changes at the Children’s Advocacy Center. Changes that bring on both feelings of happiness and deep sadness. We are saying farewell to our Development Director, Michelle Wilson. She is moving on to new adventures that, unfortunately for us, include a new job.
Michelle has been part of the CAC team for seven years. Staying put for seven years in the same nonprofit is not something that happens very frequently. I like to say the players are always the same, just where they sit at the table is different.
Many people recognize Michelle as one of the faces of the CAC. Many people recognize Michelle as the person who raises revenue and rallies supporters for our agency. Today I want to invite you to look deeper at Michelle’s contribution to this community.
Without Michelle’s tireless efforts the CAC would not have been able to grow our capacity to serve the children and families we serve. Let that sink in a moment. Being the Development Director is so much more than just raising funds and awareness.
Michelle has helped behind the scenes insure our staff have what they need in order to help abused children journey to healing.
Literally thousands of children in Jackson County have been impacted by the work Michelle has done behind the scenes. Thousands of abused children have been able to get forensic interviews, therapy, mentoring opportunities, advocacy, and medical exams and begin to a journey of healing. Thousands of children understand that they have value. Thousands of children have the gift of knowing that their abuse does not have to define who they are.
Let’s change our lens and look at Michelle’s contribution from a different angle. There are many professionals in Jackson County who work tirelessly to protect the children of Jackson County who have received specialized training as a result of Michelle’s work. There are many professionals who were able to receive professional mentoring as a result of the funding secured through Michelle’s work. This training and mentorship multiplies those thousands of children impacted by her work, probably at least tenfold.
There are countless Board members that Michelle mentored. There are countless Board members that Michelle has helped recognize in themselves new skills and new strengths that they never knew they had. Michelle has done the same for many staff members.
From a more personal place, I would like to thank Michelle for making my transition into the Director’s position two years ago so much easier than it could have been.
It is always difficult to move to a new community. It is always difficult to take on a new leadership role. It is always difficult to come in and have new ideas and try to execute them in a place where there is an established culture. Michelle certainly helped to keep me on a pace that would help in my success in all those areas.
Tomorrow is Michelle’s last day with our Center as our Development Director. In a blog or newsletter in the near future I will be introducing the person who will be taking on the role of Development Director.
But for today in this moment, I am appreciating and recognizing Michelle’s contribution to our community. Today in this moment, I am recognizing that I am going to miss the daily check ins, the million emails, and the daily reminders to take care of myself. Today in this moment I will watch Michelle spread her wings just as a newly transformed butterfly does after emerging from their cocoon ready to tackle new challenges.
Transition is part of the life cycle of any nonprofit. We are definitely in another transition phase as committed staff members leave our agency to claim new adventures and new passions. I take heart that with every goodbye, we are saying hello to someone with new energy and new ideas that will take us to the next phase of our life cycle.
This is a guest post by Children’s Advocacy Center Board Member, Mark Huddleston.
You matter! In fact, if it weren’t for you, and people like you, our Children’s Advocacy Center would not exist today. Some people think that our CAC gets the majority of its funding from grants, foundations and government assistance. The reality is that we depend very much on the generosity of people and businesses from our own community.
As the recently retired district attorney for Jackson County, and a long-time board member of the CAC, I’d like to share a little bit about how our Center came to be.
The first CAC was started in Huntsville, Alabama in 1986 by then DA Bud Cramer. The philosophy behind CACs is to change how the system works so that it is designed with child abuse victims in mind.
In Jackson County, our CAC has been in existence for over 22 years. The process for looking at the creation of a CAC came about through the JC Child Abuse Task Force. That was a group of professionals who worked with kids, and which had largely been focused on training issues. In 1987, Josephine County had gotten a large grant to build the first CAC in Oregon. Thinking that we didn’t want Josephine County to get too far ahead of Jackson County, the Child Abuse Task Force began looking at the feasibility of creating a center of our own. However, at the time, no other large grants were available, so we started on a shoestring. The first step was to incorporate with the Sec. of State, and form a 501 C3 non-profit corporation with the IRS. We started with grants from what was then the Jackson County Junior Service League and the Ben B Cheney foundation that totaled just over $20,000.
With that money in hand, we found a small house at 816 West 10th street that was available for sale for $43,000. Since we didn’t look like a good bet for financing at that time, we needed assistance to secure a mortgage. That help came from the City of Medford, and from Jackson County, each of which agreed to guarantee the balance on the loan if we were unable to pay it off. The purchase was made in December of 1990. For the next year, we spent every weekend, and many weekdays working on the remodel of that old home. It was stripped to the studs, and slowly was turned into a modern children’s advocacy center. The work was done by volunteers mostly: from Kiwanis, St Mark’s Church, the Moose, Elks, boy scouts and many others. Donations of materials and supplies came from Kogap Lumber, Hughes Plywood, and many other local businesses. We opened our doors for business in April of 1991. We could not have pulled it off without yeoman’s work from Bruce Abeloe, a Medford architect, who acted as our general contractor, and who spent most of his Saturdays for a year helping to direct activities at the site.
I really think the fact that we didn’t have a big grant to simply build ourselves a new center, turned out to be a good thing in the long run – because it meant that we had to come to the community for support. And we have had great support from our community ever since!
That’s what I mean when I say you matter. In fact, everyone matters when it comes to kids!
The Children’s Advocacy Center is proud to be a participant in #GivingTuesday on December 3rd. #GivingTuesday is a movement to create a national day of giving to kick off the giving season on the Tuesday following Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
