Kids Intervention and Diagnostic Service Center
ANNUAL REPORT 2011
1,802 children and adults directly served through KIDS Center programs 537 adults trained in Darkness to Light 646 referrals made to KIDS Center for children in need of evaluation services 380 child evaluations and consults took place at KIDS Center 478 families received critical family support services 380 children received therapeutic services at KIDS Center Highlights from the year
I
nternet Safety Training
We launched this training in 2011 and 161 adults in Central Oregon have been trained to date. Our 2 hour training provides parents and caregivers an awareness of the dangers that exist and how to take simple steps to protect children when online.
B
lue Ribbon - Child Abuse Prevention Month
During the April campaign, volunteers and partners blanketed Central Oregon with almost 50,000 blue ribbons and 32,000 newsletters raising child abuse awareness. We had multiple TV appearances and radio interviews and tied over 2000 ribbons to the trees outside KIDS Center.
Statistics
S
exual and physical abuse remain the highest forms of abuse referrals to KIDS Center, 67% were for sexual abuse and 27% were for physical abuse.
N
early 88% of alleged perpetrators identified by children evaluated at KIDS Center were either a family member (65%) or someone known to the child (23%) such as a family friend or another adult in the home.
T
his year we received the highest number of referral calls in our history. And while the number of evaluations has slightly decreased from last year, we provided family support services to an additional 233 children that did not require evaluations.
From KIDS Center’s Executive Director
L
ately, I have been asking myself how we measure success. Is it pure data? Is it the results of our client surveys? Are we successful when we caccomplish all our goals and objectives? Or, is it subjective and too elusive to quantify? The dictionary defines success as “the favorable or prosperous termination of attempts or endeavors.” At KIDS Center, we ask the question “What is in the best interest of this child?” before making decisions or moving ahead. When we keep that question at the heart of all we do and when our attempts and endeavors have favorable outcomes for the child and family, I believe it is then that we have reached success. It has been a very busy year for our staff with over 645 referrals from our community partners to schedule medical evaluations for children ages birth to 18. For 95% of those referrals, we performed evaluations and/or provided vital family support and advocacy. The majority of our referrals continue to be for sexual and physical abuse. We also launched an exciting and informative new Internet Safety Training. This training was created as a direct response from youth sharing with us (during their medical evaluations) how often they were receiving or sending sexually graphic images on their cell phones and social networking sites. It’s vital that we all understand how dangerous the Internet can be for children who are without controls or parental involvement. Through our partnership with Deschutes County Behavioral Health, our amazing team of therapists supported a record 360+ children in 2011 as they navigated the road to emotional healing. Providing a wide variety of techniques, caring and professional staff walk beside children and their families, engaging them with tools and resources to build stronger bonds and heal from the trauma they have experienced. I am overwhelmed by how this community has supported our most vulnerable members. I hold hope for the day we are no longer needed, but for now, we will continue to embrace the abused and support their healing and long-term health. We do this without adding the burden of cost to families as all our services are free. As we move forward in our quest to protect and honor children in our community, I implore you to take our Internet Safety Training this year, to be a supportive and loving adult in a child’s life, and to know the warning signs of abuse so that you can be a part of the solution! Shelly Smith
♥♥ The vast majority of our funding ($1.1M) comes from local individuals, businesses, private
Did you know...
foundations and community partners.
♥♥ 88 cents of every dollar raised is directed to our core services.
2011 Expenditures - $1,478,960 Management 5%
2011 Operating Revenue - $1,435,513 Progam Revenue 11%
Fundraising 7%
Programs 88%
NOTE - The year-end deficit of $43,447 was covered by our operating cash reserve.
Government & Public Funds 30%
United Way 3%
Donations & Events 39%
Private Foundations 17%
From The Ford Family Foundation
“In 2011, The Ford Family Foundation made a multi-year commitment to support the work of KIDS Center, recognizing a genuine commitment to child abuse prevention and intervention in rural communities across Deschutes, Crook, and Jefferson Counties and Warm Springs. The caliber of their work, as evidenced by the strength of their programming and the level of community support, impressed us, and we have since solicited both expertise and advice from KIDS Center staff as we build our own understanding of how we can help lessen instances of child abuse.” Keavy Cook, Senior Program Officer - Grants Program, The Ford Family Foundation
Rural Initiative
In order to better serve the children and families who reside in the rural communities of Crook and Jefferson Counties, KIDS Center has modified our approach and service delivery. Our newly created Rural Initiative is expanding Family Support Services as well as Prevention efforts in local communities where they will have the largest long-term impact on the health of each child, family and community. We are proud to announce that in 2011 we received two multi-year grants totaling $145,000 in support of this program. Our Rural Initiative will also address the acute and comprehensive service needs of abused children. We anticipate there will be 60 new victims in Crook County and 35 new victims in Jefferson County in 2012. Our prevention efforts will include greater awareness building activities and our two trainings - Darkness to Light: Stewards of Children and Internet Safety.
KIDS Center, 1375 NW Kingston Avenue, Bend, OR 97701 541 383 5958 | www.kidscenter.org
Family Support
When families come to KIDS Center, they are often in the middle of one of the most traumatic and difficult experiences of their lives.
Family Support provides the crisis intervention and emotional support for parents while their child goes through the evaluation process. We are also able to follow the family’s progress after the evaluation and make sure that they continue to get the assistance and support that they need. We often hear comments from families that while they were originally confused and overwhelmed, they leave feeling grateful that someone was able to support them through the process, answer questions and offer resources. One family that was having a particularly difficult time stated: “Thank you so much for staying with me and letting me vent and get some of this off of my chest.” Another family mentioned: “On the day of the evaluation there was too much to process and I was too overwhelmed to remember everything that happened; it is so nice to know someone cares about what happened to us and actually follows up with us.”