Tag: Building Bridges

  • A Building Bridges Adventure with the CAC kids

    A Building Bridges Adventure with the CAC kids

    By Virginia Sagal, Communication & Outreach Coordinator, The Children’s Advocacy Center of Jackson County

    The kids were waiting, very excited for the bus to arrive and take them to the Sanctuary One at Double Oak Farm!

    There they would get a tour of the farm. The tour would include visiting with all the Sanctuary One animals. These animals come from abused and neglected situations and now are in a safe and secure environment.

    When we arrived one hour later, we were met with the staff who would guide us through our tour. The kids were greeted first by the cats and dogs, which were in a separate area on the farm from the rest of the animals. They were allowed to pet them after being told that they are all a bit timid and need special care.

    It was wonderful to see how gently cats were picked up and how carefully they treated the one dog that came up to them.

    Children feeding goat

    Then we were off to the pasture to be greeted by two very friendly little pigs that ran to them to say welcome. The kids were so happy and excited and bonded instantly. In the pasture they had the opportunity to pet all the other pigs, horses, and goats.

    It was so special to see children who are going through therapy being social and nurturing to their fellow farm friends.

    This is what our Building Bridges workshops are about. These activities help socialize the kids in nurturing environments — teaching care, love, and respect for others and animals. Children healing from abuse can have better outcomes in therapy, stronger relationships with family members and peers, and greater levels of participation in the community.

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Art and the Mother’s Touch

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

    In honor of what would be my mom’s birthday this month, I am sharing a post I wrote three years ago on healing and the mother’s touch.   This could have been written now, with the references to the stories shared at this center and the healing that occurs here.  We now offer art workshops through our Building Bridges project and our therapists continue to offer a variety of types of creative therapies for hundreds of kids and teens each year.

    I am looking at a picture of my mom a few years ago on a trip to visit my sister in Colorado.  Beautiful flowers surround her and she has a relaxed smile on her face.

    I am smiling back at her this morning.

    My mother and the whole state of motherhood have been on my mind a lot this week.  I read a story the other day about a premature newborn who was pronounced dead, then was put on his mother’s chest and started breathing.  He is now 2 years old and thriving.

    A mother’s touch is pretty powerful stuff.

    My mom passed away a few months ago.  I was blessed to be able to spend the last several weeks of her life with her, along with other siblings.  During that time we talked a lot, when she wasn’t too tired, about the years we had all spent together and the years when life had us in different places around the country.  I have lived far away since I graduated from college and always hoped I wouldn’t regret living so far from my mom once she passed away.

    I have found, though, that I feel as if she and I were just as close as she was to my siblings living near her.  We talked on the phone a few times a week and saw each other at least once a year.  Our relationship was quiet, subtle, almost invisible because it was largely through phone contact.  But it was powerful, like the touch of that mama whose love helped her newborn breathe for the first time.

    It’s kind of like art, I realize, and the process of creating it.  The product may be powerful, with its own energy surrounding it, even if the process of creating it was invisible to the viewer.

    I think of Mom all the time now, dream about her.  Her touch is still with me, subtle and powerful, reminding me to breathe every day and take in all that is around me.  She invites me every day to choose life above everything and to enjoy every minute, every gift.  At night when I put my son to sleep, we say goodnight to her and to the angels.  I hug him very closely, wanting my touch to stay with him even when I’m not with him.

    This week was a difficult one at the Children’s Advocacy Center.  We heard too many stories of kids who have been hurt, most by family or extended family members.  We talk to each other about how it affects us, all of these stories.  And we talk about what we do to handle the stress and sadness of our work.

    The thing that works, it seems, is staying connected – to life, to what we love, to the gentle touches of the people around us.  I think of Mom to help me through.  I decide every morning to choose life and gratitude, no matter what is happening.  Her touch sustains me still.

    So many of the kids and teens who come to us don’t have this kind of memory of gentle, loving touch.  Most have memories of touch that harmed them.  In the mentoring program and in therapy and in all of our interactions with them we try to give them something of what they missed.  Something of the mother’s touch.

    Through the art program we offer them a way to choose life in the face of sadness and despair.  They create works that reflect their lives and their hopes.  Through the touch of the brush to the canvas, they can experience something they may never have had.  Through the kind words and support of their mentors and those who see their works, we hope they can begin to have memories that will sustain them, much like the memory of my mother’s voice sustains me.

    I choose to believe that we can do this, help them create an internal voice and memory that will help them remember to breathe when life gets difficult.

    I believe the mother’s touch is always there, something we can pass on to each other when needed, an invisible life force with a tangible energy all its own.

    We can do it through kind words, art, anything that helps to create the energy that can sustain us, no matter what we face.

  • Live United!

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

    I have been reflecting on “community” a lot recently and really trying to name what it is to me.

    This could be as a result of the recent tragedy in Ferguson. It could be as a result of my son growing older and wanting him to find his place, where he belongs. It could be as a result of my moving to a new community last year and trying to build a new place of belonging for myself.

    It is a little of all those things. It is also because of building new friendships with the wonderful family that is the United Way of Jackson County. Because of these friendships I have been tuned in to the United Way slogan “Live United!” Their marketing person is genius! And yes, I did ask if I could use their slogan in this writing. The very kind Executive Director at United Way enthusiastically agreed to let me borrow it!

    Who would not want to Live United?

    I think about the families and young people that are served by the Children’s Advocacy Center of Jackson County. I think about the staff that serves them. A staff that tries to model for these families we serve to show them how to care for the children that have been entrusted to them.

    I was humbled last week. My son’s school has a shoebox Christmas gift project every year where children bring gifts in, all wrapped in shoe boxes to take to St. Vincent De Paul to be passed out to families in need. I watched as kids filed in to the kindergarten classroom, each proudly grasping their gift. Every single child participated. My son was so proud to bring in his gift to share. I watched again today as each child brought in their canned foods to give to the needy.

    It gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling to know that my child is surrounded by a community that reaches out to those in need.

    I can tell you countless stories of how Jackson County “Lives United” and why that is important to the Children’s Advocacy Center of Jackson County. One that immediately comes to mind is a young man that gave us his lunch money to kick off our Cherish a Child Luncheon in 2013. It was not a huge donation but that seed provided inspiration for the Center to meet its fundraising goal. It was not a direct ask. He happened to be waiting on our Development Director at a local business the day of the luncheon.

    If you ask him he will tell you he did it to give back. He had a family member come through the Center and was grateful for the work that was done on behalf of that child.

    There was the young woman who did her Bat Mitzvah project and chose to do a project that would benefit the children served by the Center.

    There is the stranger in Fred Meyer who saw a woman buying Christmas presents for the Center to give to children we serve whose families are having a tough year. She handed over money for her to buy more gifts. These stories are not unique here.

    I can take it even one step further. Living United is exemplified by the agencies that have partnered with the Children’s Advocacy Center this year to provide opportunities for the children we serve and their families. Non-profit agencies working together for the good of the families we serve together.

    They all came together with us to become involved in an auxiliary program of our therapy department called Building Bridges. Some of the community partners included United Way; the Touvelle Foundation; The Studio at Living Opportunities; Daniel Murphy of Integrity of Life Services; the Craterian Theater; professional dance teachers Jenna Trotter and Becky Hale; Rogue Valley Farm to School; Hanley Farm; Warhorse Alliance; the Oregon Conservatory of Performing Arts; and the Ashland Food Co-op. We are working with the Rose Circle in Ashland to provide mentoring circles to our young clients here at our Center. We are partnering with the YMCA to provide a rock climbing therapy group facilitated by one of our therapists.

    We are doing these collaborative efforts to expose the children we serve and their families to services and activities that exist in the valley that are available to them. We are all modeling working together so that the families receive the very best services from this community.

    I am so proud to live in a place that values our children. I am so proud to be a part of a community that truly understands “Living United”.

    This has been a great year here at the Children’s Advocacy Center. Everyone here knows that it is because of the support received from the community. We are thankful to you all.