Category: Volunteers and Supporters

Good News: High school freshman making a difference

By Tammi Pitzen, Executive Director of The Children’s Advocacy Center of Jackson County

My faith in humanity has been restored.

I have to be honest. I have been struggling the last couple of weeks. I have been struggling to reconcile the violence, the hatred, the arguing, the shaming, and the lack of empathy that plays out every day on the news with the vision of the world I have in my heart…the one I want my son to grow up in and be a part of.

It had left me in a major funk! Not quite depressed but unable to shake the hopelessness. Just when I thought it was going to take over and change this glass half full girl’s outlook, something wonderful happened and it totally snapped me out of it.

The something that happened was dreamed up by a 14 year old high school freshman. There is STILL good in this world. There are young people who care about the world around them. This weekend I witnessed it. A young man named Milan help restore my faith in humanity.

Last weekend was an event that was the culmination of a lot of hard work by Milan to put on a fun, free event that could raise awareness about Child Abuse and the services provided by the Children’s Advocacy Center. It was the Impact Soccer Clinic.

I spent that morning surrounded by 47 smiling children having the time of their life — learning new soccer skills from three awesome coaches who donated their time. I spent the morning watching parents and grandparents cheering on their budding soccer stars. I spent the morning being overwhelmed and humbled by the generosity of these families. The Impact Soccer Clinic was a free event however, if you had the means to put a donation in the jar, that was encouraged.

Milan loves to play soccer. AND he wants to make a difference in the community he lives in and for the children who suffer abuse. He decided to bring these two passions together and the end result was this wonderful event.

I was able to witness empathy and passion and a desire to leave the world a better place.

I was able to see a young man and his family do something wonderful for the community we live in.

Hope comes from the most unlikely places; you have only to be open to it. My hope for our world to recover comes in the form of a 14 year old young man who wants to make the world a better place. I believe he will do that.

I think he already has.

Visit our Facebook Page album for more pictures from Impact Soccer Clinic
SOU volunteer reflects on her experience at CAC

My name is Cydney Reid and I am a volunteer at the Children’s Advocacy Center of Jackson County. I am currently a senior at Southern Oregon University studying psychology and sociology.

I first heard about the Children’s Advocacy Center through a friend who was already volunteering at the CAC. My friend had always expressed how she enjoyed volunteering at the CAC and really appreciated what she was learning.

For my senior project, I decided to commit to volunteering at the CAC for at least 100 hours during my winter term.

When I first began at the Children’s Advocacy Center, I only knew that they helped children and teens who have suffered from abuse. As I continued volunteering, I learned about the other wonderful things that the CAC has to offer. The CAC has toothpaste/toothbrush bags that are given to clients, they have a wide selection of gently used clothing to give out to those in need, and they have hundreds of teddy bears and stuffed animals that are waiting for a loving home.

The CAC offers a wide variety of services to those in need and will work hard to help in every way that they can.

The CAC is staffed by a variety of people ranging from intake and therapy to development and outreach. Each person that I have met at the CAC is extremely caring and passionate about what they are doing.

It is wonderful to be surrounded by people who love their jobs and are dedicated to the CAC.

I have only been a volunteer at the CAC for a little over a month and I have thoroughly enjoyed the time that I have spent here. I look forward to the next few months and seeing more of the amazing things that they do.

Cydney Reid
Winter Gala 2016: Camelot and Good Deeds for Children

By Michelle Wilson, Development Director for The Children’s Advocacy Center of Jackson County

“Don’t ever let it be forgot
That once there was a spot
For one brief, shining moment
That was known as Camelot!”
~ Camelot (the movie)

King Arthur and Queen Guinevere ~ played by Geoffrey and Joi Riley

For one brief moment on January 30, Camelot was alive and well in our part of the world. A mighty team of volunteers created a Medieval castle, complete with King Arthur and his court, and the community was invited to enter inside.

Dragons, knights, lords and ladies all came together to help us create a mythical world – for just one evening – and over 250 people joined us at our annual Winter Gala in a night which focused on children. King Arthur and Queen Guinevere (played royally by Geoffrey Riley and his wife Joi), held court, and Lancelot, Morgaine, and Merlin moved through the castle walls entertaining our guests.

This trio also had a quest: they sought to find the pure of heart and mind and give away blue crystal hearts to anyone who was worthy.

To receive a heart, guests had to share a line or two of Old English (showing wisdom with their words), correctly answer a question about Camelot (showing knowledge of this mythical world), or share about One Kind Deed they had done that day for children (showing kindness and a pure heart).

It was a night of celebration, and all of our guests did Kind Deeds for children that evening. Celebrations bring us together and strengthen our sense of community. This celebration brought us all together in the noble quest of raising awareness of the great need for support in keeping children safe and healthy in our community.

Thank you to all who attended, to our noble and generous sponsors, and to those who worked countless hours to make it all happen!
You Matter!

CAC Board Member, Mark Huddleston

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 10^th 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.

You can make a donation to the Children’s Advocacy Center this holiday season at: https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/youmatter/

Category: Volunteers and Supporters

Good News: High school freshman making a difference

SOU volunteer reflects on her experience at CAC

Winter Gala 2016: Camelot and Good Deeds for Children

You Matter!