From the Deputy Director's Desk:
The Amani Center is turning 25 in 2025! 25th anniversaries are known traditionally to be the “Silver Jubilee” year, and we at the Amani Center are looking forward to a year full of celebrating “25 Years of Amani”. Over the next 12 months we will highlight accomplishments and milestones from the past 25 years, sharing our journey from 2000 to 2025. To follow these accomplishments, make sure to Like/Follow us on Facebook or Instagram. You can find us @amanicenterkids on both platforms. We’ll also be sharing stories right here in our monthly newsletter. You can encourage others to sign up for this newsletter here.
From our start as a small coalition of community partners in 2000, to our current state of employing the largest number of staff in the agency’s history, we have come so far in our work to give abused children a voice – due in large part to supporters like you! As we reflect with gratitude on the achievements that we have made in our 25-year history, we also look forward to the bright future ahead of us with our continued plans to expand capacity, programs AND space.
We are approaching this year with anticipation in developing programs that meet the needs of our community in prevention, education and mental health care. We expect to increase capacity around assessments (medical exams, forensic interviews and victim advocacy services), as well as hiring additional staff to meet the growing needs in trauma focused therapy and prevention/education efforts. And if all goes well and according to plan, we hope to break ground on a new building this year, which will be the permanent home of the Amani Center for years to come. To break ground in this notable year would be an incredible way to celebrate and honor the past 25 years, as well as establish a firm foundation for the next 25 and beyond.
If you haven’t heard about this building project and you’re interested in knowing more, please reach out to me at bpulito@amanicenter.org. I’d love to show you our vision for the future. And if you’d like to celebrate this monumental anniversary with us, please consider donating via our 25th Anniversary donation page. All donations will support the building fund, making a permanent home a reality for the Amani Center.
Beth Pulito, Deputy Director
What's New?
January is National Human Trafficking Prevention Month, and our Amani Center Domestic Trafficking Victim Coordinators are working hard behind the scenes to distribute resources locally to increase awareness of trafficking happening in Columbia County.
Recognizing human trafficking is a huge step toward putting a stop to it. Trafficking in real life doesn’t always look the way that it appears to in the movies; traffickers rarely pick a random victim to grab off the street and force into a waiting vehicle.
The truth is, most victims are trafficked by someone that they know, trust and even love such as a family member or a romantic partner. Victims are targeted because of their vulnerability and are groomed by traffickers in order to gain their trust and then exploit them. Many survivors of human trafficking didn’t even recognize that they were in a trafficking situation until they left it.
You can learn more about recognizing potential human trafficking signs and situations by visiting the Polaris Project website.
Report suspected human trafficking to the National Human Trafficking Hotline – call: 1-888-373-7888, or text: 233733.
January Spotlight:
Once again, our communications and direct service team members sat down for a chat about the latest topics affecting staff who work directly with children impacted by abuse. Here is a summary of their conversation:
In November, several direct service staff members attended an out-of-state training covering a range of topics, with one that stood out above the rest: a session with attorney Kristina Korobov from the Zero Abuse Project.
Kristina spoke on several topics, with the first being the often misunderstood and under-reported crime of “sextortion”. Sextortion (sexual extortion) is described as “a serious crime that occurs when someone threatens to distribute your private and sensitive material if you don’t provide them images of a sexual nature, sexual favors, or money.”
Kristina shared that sextortion can be common with teens 13-17, especially if their parents have little to no oversight of their online activity. Lack of parental monitoring of a child’s online activity leaves them more exposed to potential predators. A common method that predators employ online is to pose as a teen themselves and work to build a relationship with a minor. Once trust is built, the predator will coerce them into sending explicit photos. Once the teen sends explicit photos to the predator, the predator will threaten to expose the photos to their parents, friends or school unless they continue to send more photos or money. Because there is so much shame experienced by victims of this crime, they often do not come forward. Sextortion is highly under-reported, yet it happens across the country and is more common than many may think. Parents can use these resources from Safety Net to learn how to guard their children’s online safety.
Kristina also spoke on the topic of abuse taking place in schools, and how school administrators typically handle these reports. She shared that, unfortunately, it is rare for reports of school staff members abusing students to be handled “the right way”; reports are often not taken seriously, or staff members may be asked to resign to put an end to it. Also, Kristina shared that when parents are looking at prospective colleges with their kids, as a safety measure, it is important to note the number of reported rapes each year. It may seem counterintuitive, but a higher number of reported rapes can indicate an administration that takes reports seriously and investigates them, as opposed to a campus that has zero reported rapes. It is a painful reality that rape is a crime that happens everywhere, and it is how school administrators respond to it that matters – either by investigating it thoroughly or hiding it entirely. Schools and colleges that have a robust response to reports of abuse and rape send a powerful message to students and their communities that they will not be a place where a predator can prey on victims and get away with it.
Reflecting on all that they took away from this training, our staff are looking forward to finding ways to work with our community partners and schools in the future. We aim to provide age-appropriate educational materials in order to help adults and kids alike to recognize different types of abuse, and how to get help. If you would like to learn more about these resources, contact our office.
Upcoming Events:

Saturday, April 26th – Race Against Child Abuse
Lace up your running shoes and tie on your superhero cape for this year’s Race Against Child Abuse! New this year is our superhero theme, inviting all race participants to join in on the fun and dress up in their best and brightest superhero gear to “be a hero for kids”.
2025 also marks the 25th anniversary of the Amani Center, and we can’t think of a better way to celebrate then by making the future home of the new Amani Center a feature in this year’s race. Our race route for 2025 will start and end at the property slated to house the new Amani Center building, on McNulty Way near Lower Columbia Engineering.
Invite your friends, family or coworkers to start training now for the 2025 Race Against Child Abuse and be a superhero for kids! Online registration coming soon!