Welcome to the latest edition of our newsletter, where every story, every word, and every effort is dedicated to championing the rights and well-being of the most precious members of our community – our children. At the Children’s Advocacy Center of Jackson County, we stand as a beacon of hope, compassion, and unwavering support for those who need it most. Join us as we continue our journey of advocacy, empowerment, and healing for every child in need.
"Be the change you want to see!"
Dear Community Members,
As we reflect on the past year, I am filled with gratitude for the resilience and dedication our team has shown in providing essential services to children and families affected by abuse. Our unwavering commitment to ensuring that every child in our community who experiences abuse receives the comprehensive care and support they deserve has never been stronger.
A cornerstone of the Children’s Advocacy Center (CAC) is our forensic interviewing service. Our interviewers, trained in developmentally appropriate techniques, conduct interviews with children who have faced abuse. These interviews are vital for gathering crucial information in a manner that is both accurate and sensitive, aimed at minimizing additional trauma to the child.
Beyond forensic interviewing, our suite of support services encompasses advocacy, mental health counseling, medical evaluations, and connections to other community resources. Our holistic approach is designed to meet the physical, emotional, and psychological needs of the children we serve, ensuring they receive the comprehensive care necessary for healing and recovery.
In 2023, we provided over 5,000 services to 620 children, a testament to our ongoing commitment to deliver trauma-informed, evidence-based, and professional interventions. These services are crucial for helping children and their families navigate the challenging journey from trauma to healing, underscoring the importance of coordinated support from dedicated professionals at the CAC.
Child abuse is not just an individual issue but a community-wide challenge that requires a united response. We are profoundly grateful for the unwavering support from our community, which enables us to offer hope and healing to the children we serve. Your support is the backbone of our mission, and together, we make a significant impact on the lives of those affected by child abuse.
Thank you for standing with us as we continue our vision of a community where every child is safe, valued, and heard.
With heartfelt appreciation,
Tammi Pitzen
CACJC Executive Director
By Tammi Pitzen, Executive Director of the Children’s Advocacy Center of Jackson County Learning from the Past: Building a Culture of Self-Care This story is number twelve in Tammi’s series of Thirty Stories from Thirty Years working in child welfare. You can read all of the stories here. This series
By Tammi Pitzen, Executive Director of the Children’s Advocacy Center of Jackson County Learning from the Past: Building a Culture of Self-Care This story is number eleven in Tammi’s series of Thirty Stories from Thirty Years working in child welfare. You can read all of the stories here. This series
By Tammi Pitzen, Executive Director of the Children’s Advocacy Center of Jackson County Learning from the Past: Building a Culture of Self-Care This story is number ten in Tammi’s series of Thirty Stories from Thirty Years working in child welfare. You can read all of the stories here. This series
In 2023, our dedicated team at the Children’s Advocacy Center of Jackson County tirelessly worked to deliver essential services to children in need throughout our community. From advocacy and forensic interviews to medical care, mental health support, prevention training, and the comforting presence of our beloved program assistant dog, Fancy, each member of our team contributed their expertise and compassion to ensure that every child who entered our facility received the care and support they deserved. Together, we brought hope, healing, and a brighter future to many young lives, reaffirming our commitment to serving as a beacon of safety and support for our community’s most vulnerable members
| Year | Advocacy | Forensic Interviews | Medical Services | Mental Health | Prevention | Fancy Program Assistant Dog |
| 2021 | 4729 | 587 | 116 | 1096 | 32 | |
| 2022 | 4411 | 466 | 201 | 1296 | 343 | |
| 2023 | 3101 | 447 | 240 | 1608 | 123 | 710 |
| 2024 | 288 | 35 | 17 | 131 | 62 |
Thank you to everyone who joined us at the Children’s Advocacy Center 2024 Winter Gala: Under the Sea! It was a night filled with enchantment and community spirit. Guests were transported to an underwater wonderland at the Ashland Hills Hotel & Suites, where they enjoyed mesmerizing entertainment, delectable cuisine, and exciting auctions. Together, we celebrated the important work of the Children’s Advocacy Center and raised vital funds to support children and families in need. Your support makes a real difference, and we can’t wait to see you at our next event!
At the Children Advocacy Center of Jackson County (CACJC), the heart of our mission lies in fostering support and healing to children who have faced trauma. Central to our mission is the Therapy Department, a team uniquely equipped to address the multifaceted needs of children and their caregivers following traumatic experiences, particularly those related to abuse.
Led by a dedicated team comprising therapists Andrew Fallman, Gaile Friend, Catherine Zern, therapy assistant Debbie Donahue, and the comforting presence of Fancy, the CAC Facility/Therapy Dog, our department is a haven for healing. We are committed to employing evidence-based, best practice treatments that have been rigorously normed and validated on abuse survivors, receiving endorsement from the National Children’s Alliance.
Our therapeutic journey begins with an in-depth, multi-session assessment that incorporates a variety of measures and interviews with both the child and their caregivers. This critical first step allows us to gather a holistic view of the child’s current state, including their symptoms, strengths, historical background, and specific needs, setting the stage for a personalized healing strategy.
A key element of our therapeutic approach is Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavior Therapy (TF-CBT), a model developed by Judith Cohen, Anthony Mannarino, and Esther Deblinger. TF-CBT is intricately designed for trauma survivors and their families, incorporating the following essential recovery components through the PRACTICE acronym:
Children navigate these recovery components using diverse modalities — including art, journaling, role play, sand play, movement, books, stories, and puppets — allowing their unique creativity and personality to enrich the healing process.
Understanding the pivotal role of caregivers, our Therapy Department also offers a six-week support group for non-offending caregivers of children who have suffered sexual abuse. This program addresses a broad spectrum of critical topics, such as self-care post-trauma, adverse childhood experiences and resilience, insights into the behaviors and treatments of offenders, symptoms of child sexual abuse, managing behaviors in traumatized children, and guidance on navigating the judicial system.
The CACJC Therapy Department is deeply committed to creating a supportive, nurturing environment that champions the recovery of every child and caregiver who enters our realm. Through our specialized therapy programs and steadfast support, we are dedicated to empowering survivors and their families on their path to healing and resilience.
By Catherine Zern, LCSW
Therapy Director
The CAC Medical Department is excited to announce the addition of Shireen Chamberland, MD to our team! Dr. Chamberland is a Family Medicine Physician and Southern Oregon native who has been practicing medicine in the Rogue Valley for almost 20 years. Dr. Chamberland brings with her years of clinical experience caring for children and young adults, along with a sincere passion for helping vulnerable children. She is deeply invested in our community, while parenting her four children, and coaching youth swimming. Dr. Natalya Miller will be relocating out of Oregon with her family this June but plans to remain in the role of CACJC Medical Director, working virtually alongside Dr. Chamberland to provide a consistent, coordinated, evidenced-based approach to child maltreatment cases.
In addition to expanding our Medical Team, the CACJC Pediatric Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (PSANE) Program will be extending coverage to Asante Three Rivers Medical Center (ATRMC) in Grants Pass, OR. In partnership with the Asante Foundation, our team in Jackson County has been working closely with the physician leaders at ATRMC to make this possible. Our PSANE program, comprised of eight forensic nurses, has been responding to acute child sexual abuse cases that present to our local hospital Emergency Departments at Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center and Providence Medford Medical Center outside of CAC business hours, since 2018. The program has been critical in providing timely evaluations for sexually abused children in need of a specialized physical exam, DNA evidence collection, treatment, and testing. We have tremendous gratitude for the community partnerships that have made this program a sustainable response to a serious problem facing children in our community.
We continue to provide comprehensive services at the CAC, including medical evaluations for all forms of child maltreatment such as physical abuse, sexual abuse, exploitation, drug endangerment, and neglect. In the past two years, the CACJC has evaluated an unprecedented number of children for the primary concern of concurrent physical neglect and drug endangerment. Most of these children are present in a complex web of unmet social, medical, and developmental-behavioral needs. In June 2021, CACJC began using hair testing, in addition to highly sensitive urine drug screens, to identify drug endangered children. Hair testing provides a range of detection of approximately 2 weeks to 3 months post-exposure. Identifying environmental drug exposure is clinically useful and allows for identification of drug endangered children and high-risk, neglectful environments in which such endangerment occurs.
Among children referred to us, especially those under age 10, we are seeing an increase in environmental exposure to methamphetamine and marijuana. Alarmingly, we are now seeing high rates of fentanyl exposure, a highly potent synthetic opioid 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine (CDC.gov). Drug endangered children can present with acute toxicity that can result in life threatening results. On a broader scale, children with environmental drug exposure demonstrate significantly increased incidence of neurocognitive and developmental delays, physical afflictions, behavioral and emotional challenges, and disrupted attachment.
Because safety is so important to early childhood development, caregiver substance use is a major threat to our community’s children. Research indicates that caregiver substance abuse equates to a 2.7 times increased risk of physical abuse and a 4.2 times increased risk of neglect to children. Identifying and intervening on behalf of these children is critical to support their physical and emotional safety, which promotes their healthy growth, development, and overall wellbeing. The CAC is currently at the front lines of addressing this threat in the work we do every day.
By Natalya Miller, MD,
Medical Director
The Children’s Advocacy Center Of Jackson County’s Intake Department conducts forensic interviews and provides support services through the Family Support Team. The Family Support Team is launching a new initiative in March aimed at engaging the youth we serve and their non-offending caregivers early in CAC treatment services. The Early Engagement Enhancement or E3 is a screening tool that will be administered through our Family Support Case Managers. This screening process recognizes that families in crisis are overwhelmed. Most caregivers do not understand how treatment can benefit their child in their recovery process. By engaging caregivers early in the investigative process, this project aims at increasing access to and engagement in appropriate, trauma informed, evidenced based treatment.
In a collaborative effort with our Therapy Department we started the Parent Academy. Parent Academy is a six week psycho-educational group. We have completed the first year of offering the academy to parents to learn about recognizing and responding to trauma, and add tools to their toolbox to assist in their child’s healing process. This year we are hoping to offer the Parent Academy more frequently.
The Children’s Advocacy Center of Jackson County (CACJC) goes beyond providing critical services for abused children; we aim to create meaningful connections with the communities we serve. Our outreach and community engagement initiatives play a crucial role in amplifying our impact and building a support network vital for the children and families we assist.
These efforts are central to our mission, helping us bridge gaps and foster trust within the community. By reaching out to various groups and partners—including local schools, healthcare providers, law enforcement, and civic organizations—we make our services more accessible and inclusive, ensuring a supportive system for children in need.
The significance of our outreach and community engagement cannot be overstated. It enables early intervention and prevention by increasing awareness of child abuse and neglect. Engaging the community helps empower individuals to recognize and respond to signs of abuse, playing a key role in protecting vulnerable children.
Moreover, involving community members in volunteering, fundraising, or advocacy creates a sense of shared purpose. These connections bolster our resources and amplify our advocacy for policies that enhance child protection.
Our initiatives also foster collaboration and innovation. By working with a diverse set of stakeholders, we devise solutions that meet the complex needs of children and families. This collaborative spirit drives positive change within the community.
In summary, our outreach and community engagement are integral to our mission at CACJC. They reflect our commitment to collaboration, compassion, and empowerment, aiming for a community where every child is safe and thriving. Together, we work towards a hopeful future for Jackson County’s children.
By Azalea Lusch
Outreach and Communications Manager
Your support is crucial to continuing our vital work. Whether through volunteering, contributing financially, or spreading the word about our mission, you can make a significant impact. By joining our efforts, you help us extend our reach, empower more individuals, and protect vulnerable children in our community. Visit our website www.cacjc.org, follow us on social media CACJC Facebook, or contact us directly to find out how you can get involved and make a difference in the lives of children and families in our communities.
