The Children's Advocacy Center of Jackson County

Tag: Jackson County Oregon

  • How are children faring in Oregon?

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

    Today I am sitting in my office listening to the rain and feeling a little sad and a lot overwhelmed.  It’s Sunday and the office is very quiet except for the rain trickling through the rain gutters and the tap of my fingers on the keyboard.

    No, I am not sad because I am working on the weekend or because it is raining.

    I am sad because I just read the 2015 Child Welfare Data Book.

    There is much controversy across the country because there are statistics that have been released in recent years that indicate child abuse is on the decrease. I have watched this discussion and sometimes participated in this discussion over the last few years and I just don’t see this to be true in my every day practice.

    According to the 2015 Child Welfare Data Book, 27 children in Oregon died as a result of child abuse and neglect. 

    In 2014 that number was 13.  In 2013 that number was 10.  27 is a number that describes an amount but does not tell the story.  Behind that 27 are children that died at the hands of another.  21 of those deaths were caused by one or both parents.  20 of those children were under the age of 5.

    I do not know all their stories.  I do not know the heinous circumstance in which they died.  I would not recognize them in a picture if you showed it to me.  But my heart weeps just the same.  Each of those children carried with them potential that was never realized.  Each of those children had dreams that were never dreamt.

    Our community will never be what it could have been if those 27 children lived. 

    But, unfortunately, that is not all of the story.  As I read further, I learned that

    41.5% of the time for the abused and neglected children in Oregon, the perpetrator is their mom.  37% of the time it is their father.  A relative, a live in companion, foster parent, or guardian are the perpetrator 15.5% of the time.

    94% of the time the perpetrator was someone who, by their very role in the child’s life, is supposed to be a protector not an abuser.

    I read further.  In Jackson County our numbers increased as well.  In 2013, there were 707 victims of child abuse in our county.  In 2014 that rose to 801 and in 2015 rose again to 954.

    These are more than numbers.  There were 954 children in our community that were harmed in some way.  Chances are you know one of these 954.  Chances are they go to school with your child or grandchild.  Chances are that your paths crossed with one of these children.  You may have sat next to one at church or at a community event.  You may have seen one riding their bike in your neighborhood.

    Please do not think this is not your business.  It is your business.  It is my business.  These children are our children.

    As I read through the “numbers”, faces of children I have worked with over the years flash in my mind’s eye.  Some of them are ones that I was not happy with the outcomes and, if I am honest, I often wonder what happened after.  What kind of adult are they?  Are they happy?  Did they find peace?

    These are the thoughts that will be running through my brain, stealing sleep from me over the next few weeks.  It happens every year after I read the Data Book.  It’s predictable.  I imagine there are Department of Human Services Supervisors and case workers doing the same.

    Every year when the report is released I wonder what else I can do to keep that number from increasing.  What else can the CAC do?  What else can our community partners do?

    We can’t bury our head in the sand and pretend it isn’t happening.  Jackson County has the 9th highest rate of abuse per 1000 children in the state of Oregon. 

    No one entity and no one person is the answer.  It takes all of us.

    Not sure what you can do?

    Let me suggest a few things:

    • Make a donation to the Children’s Advocacy Center.  We provide fantastic evidence based interventions to the abused children and their non-offending caregivers that we serve. We do not charge the families for these services. The bottom line is; it takes money to provide these services. Donate Now.
    • Become a Children’s Advocacy Center volunteer. Or become a volunteer at The Family Nurturing Center or at CASA.  We all need volunteers.  We need people who can give some time that will help a child.  The Advocacy Center needs some adults who can answer a phone, play a game of checkers, and make a phone call or two…..drink a cup a coffee with a non-offending caregiver or share a gold fish with a child while they are waiting for their appointment. Learn more about volunteering at the CAC or call Ginny at: vsagal@cacjc.org or 541-734-5437
    • Take a class.  The Children’s Advocacy Center has a prevention program called Protect Our Children that uses Darkness to Light’s curriculum “Stewards of Children” to teach adults to recognize and respond to child sexual abuse.  It is an adult’s responsibility to keep kids safe but how can you do that if you don’t know how to identify it.  Or even better, host a class for your church, your civic organization, your place of employment, your best friends—any group of people you are involved in. Schedule a class for yourself or your group
    • Talk to your legislative representatives about the importance of funding in programs that respond and intervene in child abuse.  Talk to them about the CAC and the work that we do. Find your legislators
    • Become informed.  Attend the Free CAC Community Forum coming up on Nov. 7th regarding keeping kids safe on the internet.

    You Matter.

     

     

     

  • How long will we look the other way

    By Danielle Ellison of Medford, Oregon

     

    How do we value the life of a child? How do you put a price on Christmas morning, the first day of school, snow angels in the winter, cannonballs in the summer, and high school graduation?

    I ask because my son was nearly robbed of these memorable childhood moments. On Sept. 22, 2014, my life changed forever. Horrible abuse had been taking place in my absence, and on that fateful day in September a bright light was shed on a dark issue.

    My 3-month-old son was a victim of child abuse, more specifically shaken baby syndrome. His future is unclear, and each day I awake wondering if today is the day that will unveil permanent damage, left behind by the brain injury inflicted by his abuser.

    Many other children have not been as fortunate as my son; children left devastated, fighting fearlessly to overcome, to heal, to live. When they do live, they are often left blind, deaf, unable to walk or attached to feeding tubes. Many are left plagued with seizures, impaired motor skills, impaired speech and cognitive disabilities.

    While these children are suffering, trying to find the silver lining of this dark cloud, the ones responsible are minimally punished. All too often, the ones who are shattering our youth are serving minimum sentences for inflicting maximum pain, and frequently permanent damage.

    These are atrocious crimes, committed against the most defenseless victims. Any bail amount is intolerable. After searching the inmate list of the Jackson County Jail, and comparing bail amounts of different cases, I was left confused and disappointed. How is it that a person can nearly kill an innocent, defenseless infant and his bail be set at an amount that is three times lower than that of a person being charged with a robbery where no one was injured?

    What kind of message does that send? To me, it sends a message that says material objects as a whole are more valuable than the life and future of a child.

    No amount of money will erase cerebral palsy. It will never give the sight of the sun setting to that child left blind, or the sound of the rain falling to that child left deaf. Our children are our most valuable blessings. When are we going to start protecting them?

    These crimes are crippling our youth. Yet, the culprits responsible often are walking away with a slap on the wrist. A few years ago, a 5-week-old baby girl was severely abused at the hands of her own father. She was violently shaken on numerous occasions. She was left severely brain damaged, and her development halted, leaving her 5 weeks old forever.

    She fought like a warrior for nine years, and then, 10 days short of her 10th birthday, she passed. Her abuser was found incompetent to stand trial because he had a low IQ. This man held down a job, drove a car and lived a normal adult life. Justice was never served for this innocent child.

    In another instance, nearly two years ago a 2-month-old boy’s life was changed forever. This infant, at the most defenseless time in his life, was strangled, shaken and beaten. These attacks caused severe brain bleeding and 25 fractured bones all over his body.

    Now nearing his second birthday, this child should be learning his ABCs, potty training and jumping on his mommy’s bed. Instead he is plagued with seizures, and developmental delays. He is unable to sit up on his own, and has been diagnosed with epilepsy and cerebral palsy. A young life was devastated before it began to flourish, and somehow, some way, three years seemed an appropriate sentence for his abuser. I cannot ignore that.

    Both of these examples are of local children, and they only scratch the surface. There are many more. Our children deserve the right to experience the simple joys in life, not just its sorrows.

    I am a single mother of two boys and understand that there are moments in parenting where you feel like crossing that line out of frustration, but you just can’t do it. My question is, when are the consequences of these actions going to be substantial enough to force caregivers to walk away in those moments of frustration? When are we going to say “no more?” These are not cases of two adults fighting, or vengeance being sought. This is innocence in its purest form, being destroyed.

     

  • April ~ A Month to Honor Children

    By Michelle Wilson

    April is Child Abuse Prevention Month. It is a month to honor children everywhere, those who have been harmed and those we hope to protect.

    It is also National Poetry Month.

    For this blog, I want to share a poem by a woman I had the great fortune to meet and hear read her works many years ago, when I was a graduate student studying poetry. The poem talks of the meaning of life, of poetry, and the simple belief that children have in finding meaning in the world around them.

    The poem is one of my favorites, and I think it is because it simply celebrates life through the eyes of children, in a way that reminds me to keep looking for good all around me.

    Last week I stood in a park in downtown Medford, listening to stories of horrible abuse of young children and teens who live right here, in our neighborhoods and in our city. I stood with many other adults and honored the 707 young victims of abuse in Jackson County in 2015.

    I took this poem with me, in my mind and heart. I held its simple reminder to believe in meaning all around me and in the wonder and certainty that all children have when they are born that the world is safe, a place of hidden secrets and delights.

    I hold this belief that there is meaning in what we do – on behalf of children, on behalf of all who are hurt and suffering, on behalf of all of the families who come through our center needing help during some of the most difficult times of their lives.

    Thank you, Denise Levertov, for finding me today with this poem, much like the young girls here found you, found meaning in your words. I offer this now in honor of this month celebrating the lives of children and the wisdom of poetry.

    The Secret

    By Denise Levertov

    Two girls discover   the secret of life (2)

     

     

     

  • 707 Victims of Child Abuse in Jackson County

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

    In preparation for April’s child abuse prevention and awareness activities, I have been looking at a lot of child abuse numbers . . . statistics etc. I do not believe that the numbers ever tell the full story.

    In Jackson County in 2013, there were 707 child victims of abuse or neglect. These are not the “grey void” cases. Grey void is what I call those cases that fall into the category of not good parenting decisions that do not rise to a level of founded abuse, but still have a negative impact on a child’s life. There are many cases that fall into that void.

    The Children’s Advocacy Center of Jackson County served 601 new child clients in 2014. (“New” is defined as first point of contact, but does not include clients receiving services that are continuing from the prior year.)

    But the question is — what does this really mean? What story do the numbers tell you? What do you see when you read those numbers?

    I will tell you what I see. I see sad small child faces. I see the children who go to school with my son. I see the children who sit with me in church. Those 707 live with me in this community.

    What do you hear?

    I will tell you what I hear. I hear silence. The kind of silence that speaks volumes. Most children do not report their abuse. Most depend on others to speak for them. Most depend on others to know what to look for and report on their behalf. Their silence screams HELP ME!

    There are more numbers: 44.7% of cases of abuse and neglect founded across the state were in families where substance abuse was an issue. The next highest stress factor across the state was domestic violence, followed by financial stress. I think these numbers speak for themselves, but do not tell the full story of what this means for kids.

    There is great debate across the county about what the numbers mean. Many will tell you the numbers of child abuse are decreasing. Others will tell you they are increasing. Some will cling to the decreasing numbers and tell you that “we” are doing something right. Others will tell you that the increasing numbers mean we need more in the trenches working on addressing the issue of child abuse. That debate becomes more political than I care to weigh-in on in this forum.

    What I do believe is that 707 children in my world is too high.

    What I know from experience, is that number will increase and decrease from year to year as we get better at identifying child abuse and as the community gets more skilled at reporting abuse to be investigated.

    What I know from experience is that if you, as a system, “look” for abuse you will find it. If you are not proactive in trying to remedy the problem, you will not see that the problem exists. If no one believes, then no one reports. If no one can provide protection and safety, then no one will seek it. Crazy how that works.

    I daily make a commitment to be vigilant on behalf of the children in my world. It is a struggle to balance that commitment sometimes with my family and during times when I grow weary that the issue is too big.

    My son, who is 6, and I have conversations that make it seem so simple. When he was three, and I had to work late, he wondered where I had been. He asked me why he had to stay with a sitter. I thought quickly of some lie I could tell him to save myself from the larger conversation. And, if I am honest, I only told him the truth because I was too tired to be creative. I told him that I was at work. He asked me what I did at work. I responded that there was a little girl that needed me to help her be safe.

    He then asked, “Why?” (Don’t you, as a parent, hate the whys?) So I sat down with him on my lap and said that sometimes adults hurt kids and there has to be someone to work to try to keep them safe and that was what my work was about. He looked at me and said, “Ok.” I saw clarity in his eyes beyond his then three years. I was sure he did not understand.

    He continued the conversation and asked would I keep his friends safe if they needed me. I said. “Of course.” Thinking at that point that the conversation was over, I started to move on and he grabbed my hand and looked me in the eye and asked again. Only this time, he began to name his preschool class mates off one by one. Each time I responded, “Yes, of course I would do everything I could to keep them safe.” He wasn’t asking me as a “forensic interviewer” or “advocate”. He was asking me as a “mom”.

    707 children in your world is too high. Don’t you agree?

    The question that lingers is not CAN you help them, but rather — WILL you help them?

    Many will read this and say that they cannot help. I challenge you that you CAN in the following ways:

    • Call the Children’s Advocacy Center of Jackson County and sign up for a child sex abuse prevention class.

    • Learn the signs of child abuse.

    • Be vigilant. When you see something that makes you feel like a child is unsafe, make a report to the Department of Human Services or to law enforcement. If you don’t want to do it alone, then call me at the Center and I will help you.

    • When a child tells you he/she has been hurt by an adult, do not blame the child or dismiss it. Let someone figure out if that child is safe.

    • Do not discount the impact on a child that witnessing domestic violence has. If you suspect that a child is living in a home where domestic violence is occurring, then make a report.

    Want to do more than that? Make a donation to the Children’s Advocacy Center to support our prevention program, or to support direct services. Want to do more than even that? Call the Center and become a volunteer. We need you.

    Will you help the child in your child’s class?

    Will you help the child that sits next to you in church?

    Will you help the child you see riding her bike on your street?

    How many is too many for you? What is your bottom line?

     

     

  • You Matter!

    CAC Board Member, Mark Huddleston
    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 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.

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