News – Page 2 – Columbia County Child Abuse Assessment Center

March 22, 2021

We’re HIRING!

Amani Center announces the immediate opening for a Full-Time Multi-Disciplinary Team (MDT) Coordinator.

Update: 4/15/21 – We are no longer taking applications for this position.

December 2020

Winter Quarterly Update

5-Day FLASH RAFFLE – thru December 22nd!

Grab a last minute Christmas gift or something special for yourself.(Self-Secret-Santa’ing allowed!)
Whatever your motive, you’re supporting children across Columbia County as they struggle with abuse and neglect.
Buy fast!
Ends onTuesday, December 22ndat midnight!Delivered by Christmas for all Columbia County and Portland-Metro winners!
Buy here:
https://amanic.ejoinme.org/…/tabid/1202571/Default.aspx

Don’t Forget about YOUR $300 Tax Credit!

Don’t drop the ball! YOU can choose your favorite charity to give $300 to and get a Tax Credit, whether you itemize or take the standard deduction. Don’t let Uncle Sam decide where to spend your hard earned money.Make the choice to support a mission that matters to you!
If that’s the Amani Center, you can give here. If it’s another local nonprofit, just remember to do it by December 31st! Learn more here and consult with your local tax advisor.
If you’d prefer to give monthly, learn more about our Monthly Giving program.

Great Northwest Getaway Raffle Winners!

Congratulations to our Great Northwest Getaway Raffle winners! Enjoy your local(ish), socially-distance intended getaways! A HUGE thank you to our sponsors, Knife River and InRoads Credit Union, and thank you to everyone who purchased tickets for supporting the Amani Center!

Raffle Winners

Ocean Shores, WA – Nancy Hudson
Newport, OR – Keely Nudo
Sunriver, OR (Jan) – Summer Hoag
Eagle Crest – Redmond, OR – Jennifer Motherway
Leavenworth, WA – Dave Coombs
Sunriver, OR (Feb) – Valarie Koss
Welches, OR – Suzy Worley
Birch Bay, WA – Nikki DelGuidice

$200 VISA Gift Card Winners – Lisa Galovich and Heather Hoge

Expanding our Reach

2020 has brought with it both challenge AND opportunity. When our organization had to shift from our typical in-person fundraising events and normal means of financial support, we started seeking a wider range of grant opportunities. The National Children’s Alliance (NCA) is the most noted national organization supporting Children’s Advocacy Centers across the United States. The Amani Center is an affiliate member of NCA (working towards accredited membership), and as such, was qualified to apply for a variety of grants in November. In reviewing the qualifications necessary to apply, the Amani Center found that we were able to submit three separate applications for various programs and expenses. While writing three grants all due in the same week was a huge undertaking, we decided that we had better seize the opportunity that was presented, and went on to complete all three submissions, in full and on time.

And then…we waited.

On Thursday, December 10th, we waited to hear from NCA on whether any of our applications were approved to award funds to support children in rural Columbia County, Oregon.

11:59am – Email received from NCA – “Congratulations! You’ve been selected for a Program Development for Communities grant”
12:09pm – Email received from NCA – “Congratulations! You’ve been selected for a Provision of Core Direct CAC Services grant”
1:20pm – Email received from NCA – “Congratulations! You’ve been selected for an Equipment Support grant”

We were the only CAC in Oregon to receive awards from all (3) grant categories and one of only two centers to receive more than a single award.
Amazing news for our little center to go 3 for 3 in this very competitive national grant process. What this means is that in 2021 we will be able to: EXPAND our services to better serve our entire county by creating a new position of Multi-Disciplinary Team / Child Abuse Fatality Team Coordinator and onboarding in the Spring; CONTINUE providing bi-lingual assessment and family support services in Spanish; and IMPROVE our forensic assessment equipment by adding a forensic light source camera for physical photography evidence and upgrade/replace aging recording equipment for interviews.
We know that securing funds will continue to look different in the coming months and year. While we hope that in-person events and engagement with our local community will be a part of those fundraising efforts, we are grateful to organizations like National Children’s Alliance who are able to facilitate funding opportunities such as this one. And while these grant awards only cover a fraction of the cost to provide forensic child abuse assessments for the children of our county, we are closer to our goals. We will be diligent in seeking funding from diversified streams, and as always, we will steward your gifts with the highest intended impact for the greater good of our local kids.

Thank you…Boeing Employees

It takes a VILLAGE to provide our services.
We are truly honored when we get to add to that village.
This month we’d like to thank: Boeing Portland Chapter of the Employees Community Fund

Community Member Employed by The Boeing Company Impacts Local Kids
In early 2020, a local Columbia County resident, employed by The Boeing Company, shared information about a grant opportunity through their employee giving grant process. When we applied to replace the worn out, fabric couch & loveseat in our family waiting room, little did we know that Covid was looming around the corner and that sanitizing surfaces would become even more important than ever before.
The Amani Center would like to publicly thank The Boeing Company and The Boeing Portland Chapter of the Employees Community Fund for providing funds to replace not only the worn-out family waiting room furniture, but also our family support services furniture, as well as security enhancing equipment to preserve our physical computer equipment and digital data.
We are so grateful for the investment that The Boeing Company and their employees have provided. The new furniture is easily sanitized in both our family waiting room and our family support services areas. Staff can expedite turnaround times in preparing our spaces for the “next” appointment. And these pieces of furniture allow our clients to sit comfortably (both physically and mentally) while we are able to offer them support during some of the most traumatizing times in their lives.
Welcome to our village, The Boeing Company!

September 2020

Fall Quarterly Update

Staffing Changes

Have you ever heard the term “sad-mad”? If you have kids or have enjoyed the movie “Home”, this term will likely sound familiar to you. At the Amani Center, we have recently experienced a similar concept of mixed feelings & emotions we’ll call “sad-glad”.

For nearly 5 years, a smart, caring, competent and humble individual has been an integral part of our small but mighty team. Nick Schwarz provided years of experienced and dedicated service in the areas of Intake Coordination, Family Support Services and Forensic Interviewing, finishing off his time with the Amani Center as our Lead Forensic Interviewer. Just shy of his 5-year anniversary, Nick has recently departed the Amani Center to complete his EdS degree through a School Psychologist internship at a High School in Tempe, Arizona. His calm character, warm demeanor and patient attention toward our clients and his easygoing and jovial nature will be missed greatly. While we are deeply sad to see him go, we couldn’t be more thrilled for Nick’s future and for the students he will serve! When you watch future Timbers soccer or Blazers basketball games, remember our dear colleague Nick and toast to his future successes (and that his teams win too!).

Remember though, we mentioned that this mixed feeling of emotion has an element of “glad” in it as well, and it is our pleasure to RE-introduce you to a past Amani Center employee. Brandy Hayes (formerly Rountree) who has rejoined the Amani Center team to take on the duties of Intake Coordination and Family Support Services Specialist, as Ellen Sperl moves into the Lead Forensic Interviewer position. Brandy was with the Amani Center from Oct. 2015-June 2016 before moving out of state. She has returned to Oregon, after several years of working with Child and Family Services in the state of Montana. Brandy grew up in Southern Oregon and is now living in Portland. She studied social work at the University of Alaska and has attended multiple trainings on forensic interviewing, child welfare and domestic violence. Brandy is bi-lingual in English and Spanish and has experience in nursing, as well. She enjoys spending time with her daughter, husband and of course, their pets. Brandy is excited to be back working in Columbia County and continuing to be active in community outreach and support. And she’s super stoked to be back in a state that has Chick-Fil-A! Please help us welcome Brandy back to the team!

One last exciting (upcoming) change to our direct service team…we are in the final recruitment stages of bringing on a FULL-TIME medical provider to offer specialized child abuse pediatric medical forensic evaluations 5 DAYS A WEEK! This is a HUGE development for our organization, as we have never had a medical provider available every day of the week. This allows our community partners more accessibility and a quicker response time in scheduling children at our clinic. We will be able to address nearly EVERY Karly’s Law case that is referred to us (the law mandates that children in Oregon who exhibit suspicious physical injuries in the course of a child abuse investigation must receive medical attention within 48 hours). Additionally, we will have a medical provider who is able to interact on a regular basis with our community, our MDT partners and the investigative process. Funding for this position was secured by combining Child Abuse Multidisciplinary Intervention and Department of Justice grantsfunds, as well as utilizing unrestricted funds from fundraising sources. If you have questions about the changes in our direct service staff, please reach out to Program Manager, Amelia Kercher, with any questions.

Responding to COVID-19

This is a new world we live in that still needs to function and address the challenges that existed before COVID-19. The National Center for Fatality Review and Prevention reports that 1,700 children in the US die of abuse or neglect and the National Children’s Alliance reports 700,000 children are victims of abuse every year. Our internal numbers suggest that child abuse is not decreasing , however, the children we are seeing are coming in at later stages of the intervention process than before COVID-19 when they had more eyes, ears and mandatory reporters available and watching out for them. As we enter into an extended period of possible isolation for children, please be vigilant in your observations of our community’s children. If you notice an indicator of abuse or neglect, even if it’s just a suspicion, report it to the statewide Child Abuse Hotline: 1-855-503-SAFE (7233)

Case workers and investigators are trained to recognize the presence of abuse and neglect but they need your help in referring questionable conditions regarding children’s safety. For additional resources in recognizing abuse and neglect, visit the Oregon Child Abuse Solutions website at https://oregoncas.org/. To learn how to support victims of child abuse in Columbia County visit the Amani Center website at www.amanicenter.org or our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/amanicenterkids

We are thankful to our community supporters who have stepped up to assist in new and creative ways, however the need is great and we must remain vigilant. We MUST continue addressing the public health crisis of Child Abuse.

Countywide services mean community wide recognition

We were honored in August to be named the Rainier Chamber Member of the Month. The Chamber shared with us that we were selected by the Chamber board because of our “role in meeting children’s needs across Columbia County during this pandemic which has presented increased challenges for our nonprofits, as well as our businesses.” Additional factors in the decision included being an active member in the Rainier Chamber of Commerce and working hard to build relationships with members, as well as other nonprofits, in our county. Our staff members are passionate, dedicated and committed to serving all children throughout Columbia County through trauma-informed best practices, fiscal responsibility and collaborative efforts with our community partners. That is at the core of our agency and we are proud, yet humbled, to receive this recognition from our business and nonprofit colleagues. We pledge to uphold the criteria with upon which we were chosen by continuing to work with countywide agencies, nonprofits, businesses and all community partners for the safety of our community’s children and the betterment of our county as a whole Thank you Rainier Chamber for this recognition.

Updates regarding Events & Fundraising

As you know, in-person events are a challenge, at best, right now. To comply with Oregon Governor’s Office mandates and to keep our community safe, we have suspended all in-person fundraising at this time. This includes our previously scheduled “Epic Voyage to Greece” aboard the Portland Spirit, that was planned for September 2020, which has been moved to September 2021. Although this will impact our organization greatly in the way we secure funding to support our agency, we know that this is the best decision on behalf of our clients, staff and community partners. If you’re looking for an agency to partner with on outside-of-the-box marketing & fundraising ideas, please contact our Development Coordinator, Beth Pulito, via email, bpulito@amanicenter.org, to discuss ideas and options that promote your business and support our mission. We love to create partnerships that are a win-win-win for our entire community!

June 2020

Amani Center Expansion Project

Amid school and business closures, reduced operations across a wide variety of services, and physical distancing measures taken by the state, we MUST still continue addressing the public health crisis of Child Abuse. The National Center for Fatality Review and Prevention reports that 1,700 children in the US die of abuse or neglect and the National Children’s Alliance reports 700,000 children are victims of abuse every year. Amani Center staff continue to work safely and diligently, providing services to children in Columbia County. Amani Center expansion plans are even more critical to provide space for families and children receiving services because of the great need but also because of physical distancing efforts. The plan also addresses increased work areas for staff to work effectively and efficiently and added security to keep alleged victims safe, both physically and virtually.
Expansion Goals

Reduce Trauma