• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

CHILDREN’S ADVOCACY CENTER OF JACKSON COUNTY NOVEMBER 2016 Where small voices are heard Making a Difference One Goal At A Time By Tammi Pitzen, Executive Director mpact Soccer was a soccer clinic with Ia mission in mind. Impact Soccer was the brain child of 14 year old Milan Bobeck. Milan is a freshman at St. Mary’s High School. While most teens were taking the summer off, Milan was preparing for the very first Impact Soccer Clinic. Milan planned, organized and executed this clinic from start to finish. Sponsors for the event included Rogue Valley Timbers, Radio Medford, Papa John’s Pizza, Soccer Post, Prairie Capital, The Human Bean and Southern Oregon Neurosurgical and Spine Associates, PC. There were adult volunteers who helped with everything from setting up, coaching, taking a tour of the Children’s Advocacy handing out snacks at break time, and Center and learning about the work that cleaning up after the clinic was completed. the center provided to children in the There were 47 children who participated. Rogue Valley who have been victims of They learned about soccer and learned abuse or witnesses to violent crimes. He new soccer skills. Some were on the field wanted to help the kids that are served at for the very first time while others were the center. He wanted to spread aware- drawn to the clinic because of an already ness about child abuse in Jackson County developed love of the game. Parents and and awareness about the Children’s grandparents watched and cheered from Advocacy Center and the services we the sidelines. The soccer clinic was free as provide to help abused children recover. for soccer. He inspired others to give and Milan wanted it to be available to all kids. There was not a particular goal, but we all be part of the solution. Fred Rogers has He had a donation jar on the registration agree it exceeded all expectations. Milan’s said that anyone that does something on table and asked those who could, to give donation amounted to around $2,000, the behalf of a child is a hero. We agree. with the intention of giving all proceeds the clinic was full, awareness was spread Milan Bobeck is doing heroic things to as a donation to the Children’s Advocacy and everyone involved had a blast! Milan Center. The kids were given soccer balls Bobeck is not your typical 14 year old. to take home with them to practice their He saw a need. He went into action to newly learned skills. Milan’s inspiration become part of the solution by combining for this fantastic event came as a result of his compassionate heart and his passion 2 CHILDREN’S ADVOCACY CENTER OF JACKSON COUNTY From the Desk of the Director Continuing the Vision By Tammi Pitzen, Executive Director can’t believe that next month marks the end of my third year as the Executive I Director of the Children’s Advocacy Center of Jackson County. We continue to BOARD OF DIRECTORS ADVISORY COUNCIL work to improve services to the abused children and their non-offending caregivers Laura Horton Randy Jones that we serve. President Donna Andrews Year to date we have served 537 child abuse victims and 450 of their non- Lauren Regnani Janet Bagley offending caregivers by providing forensic interviews, medical evaluations, therapy Vice President Mark Wisnovsky interventions and support services. We have also provided 819 adults with child Eric Rodriguez Mark Eisenstein sexual abuse prevention training through our Protect Our Children program. Secretary Bill Thorndike The Children’s Advocacy Center of Jackson County started out as a grass roots Christy Nikola Dr. Barbara Sibley Treasurer Karen Doolen effort to reduce the trauma that is sometimes caused by the intervention of the system to MEMBERS-AT-LARGE Kathy Mustard children that are at the heart of an abuse investigation. We continue to need the support Kirsten Arreguin Bylle McCulley and involvement of the community in order to address this community problem. In the Lorena Cagle Charlie Baggett past year we have worked very hard on our strategic plan and I would like to highlight Libby Becklin one of the goals of that plan and some of our successes in meeting this goal. The goal is to STAFF Mark Conner increase partnerships with community organizations to increase our overall effectiveness Tammi Pitzen Gina DuQuenne for the families we serve. We wanted to collaborate more with agencies and businesses to Dr. Natalya Miller Aimee Elko Julia Saemi meet our mission. We have two major collaborations that I want to highlight today. Beth Heckert Angela Watson The fi rst collaboration is with the Rogue Valley Medical Center (RVMC) to Tim Heim Ginny Sagal provide emergency child abuse exams. We are so thankful to be in this great partner- Mark Huddleston Linda Johnson ship. You may not be aware but Jackson County has a high rate of child abuse. Many of John Parsons Catherine Zern the children abused in our community need to have medical evaluations. This service Lydia Perez Teresa Bullock Toni Richmond cannot be adequately provided by the CAC Medical Director alone. The pediatric Shannon Modjeski Don Tollefson hospitalist program at RVMC has stepped forward to assist by providing emergency Jacki Nelson Chris Walker exams during the weekend hours. Through this partnership we are also very fortunate Cari Allen Connie Eaton to have Dr. Anna Antonopulos, DO who is able to participate on our multi-disciplin- Jennifer Canjura Kristin Allison ary team (MDT) as a liaison for the RVMC and to provide exams at our center as Jason Campbell Dr. Diane Williams needed. This is a great step forward in providing a community response to the problem Kayli Devincenzi of child abuse. We are currently recruiting for a Nurse Practitioner to join the CAC Medical Department. For as long as I have been here at the Center we have been try- Our Vision ing to fi ll this position. If you are a Nurse Practitioner with pediatric experience and are Communities where interested in working with abused children, please contact me. children are safe, The second collaboration is with Community Works. We are so fortunate for families are strong, this collaborative effort that we will be defi ning and refi ning more in the next few and our child victims become children months. Community Works applied for and was awarded a grant that will allow for a again. Community Works advocate to be working with child abuse victims who are served at the CAC. This advocate will work alongside the CAC staff to provide a more Our Mission robust and coordinated advocacy response. There are clients who may be receiving To meet the needs of children and services through Community Works who may also be referred to the CAC as a result families by providing a community-based, of being a victim of child abuse or sexual assault. This will allow both of our agencies child-focused center that facilitates a to better serve the victims and their non-offending caregivers. compassionate, multi-disciplinary approach I am a fi rm believer in the “We all do better when we ALL do better” school of to the prevention, treatment, identifi cation, investigation, and prosecution of child thought. This is an exciting time for our agency and for our community. The CAC abuse. is also exploring some other fantastic collaborative efforts with other agencies in our community. Stay tuned to learn more about those as they come to fruition. NOVEMBER 2016 3 Serving Children, Families & the Community: Department Updates Abuse and Neglect. If you are inter- to adults in the community at no cost ested in this position, please provide your through a grant from The Ford Fam- resume and cover letter to Tammi Pitzen ily Foundation. We are one of 11 sites at [email protected] or mail it to the Chil- working together in Oregon and North- Intake, Forensic Interviews and dren’s Advocacy Center. A description of ern California to train 20,000 adults over Multi-Disciplinary Team (MDT) the position is posted on our website at three years in child sexual abuse preven- We are happy to share that we have www.cacjc.org. It is on our website under tion. 819 people have participated in the recently added a new Intake / MDT the Volunteer tab under Employment. training since we began in April, 2015. coordinator to our team, Jason Campbell! We continue to provide trainings to Since January of this year we have trained Jason will also work as part of the Family local and regional law enforcement, DHS 653 people, 75 of which were trained in Support Team, providing comprehensive and other community partners on the September and are teachers and admin- services to families. Jason, a father of five, medical aspects of child abuse assessments. istrators in the Ashland School District. is a recent SOU grad and working on his On January 31st we intend on offering a Masters in Teaching. Two members of community training in association with the MDT had the opportunity to attend the Medford School District. If you are the Dallas Texas Crimes Against Children Therapy interested in signing up for a training or Conference in August. This was an amaz- We are delighted to be at full staff setting up a one for your organization, ing training opportunity. with Shannon Modjeski, Teresa Bullock, please contact Leah at protectourchildren- We are very excited to announce that and Jacki Nelson! Shannon, a Therapist, [email protected] or (541)-292-2408. Community Works received a large grant recently moved from Flagstaff , Arizona In June we held a successful Child that will include co-located advocate or ad- with her husband and daughter and has Abuse and Neglect Symposium.

Load more

  10

Copy Link