Joe Kline / The BulletinGiant teddy bears greet visitors as therapist Zila Phillips, left, gives a tour of the KIDS Center interview and exams rooms to Deschutes County Circuit Judge Steve Forte, and wife, Karen, of Bend, during the facilityís 20th anniversary open house Tuesday.

At the KIDS Center in Bend, teddy bears were piled high, employees milled about and exuberant voices of children could be heard from rooms down the hall Tuesday morning.

While the atmosphere in the building on NW Kingston Avenue tends toward joyful, the situations of children who are referred to the center are often anything but.

“KIDS” stands for Kids Intervention and Diagnostic Service, and the center provides forensic interviews, medical evaluations, therapy and family support when a child is referred to the center on suspicions of child abuse.

The center recognized 20 years of child abuse intervention in Central Oregon with an open house Tuesday. Executive Director Shelly Smith and Development and Prevention Director Robin Antonson reflected on the past two decades.

As the KIDS Center has grown, so has national awareness of child abuse. Antonson said, however, that popular understanding of the issue — nationally and locally — has a long way to go.

“As a society, we’re still really young, maybe immature, in how we talk about child abuse,” said Antonson. “Our goal is to get out there and get our community comfortable talking about child abuse and accept that it happens.”

The center ensures that children have to recount their experiences only once, said Antonson. Previously, a child might have had to do this many times — to a trusted adult, to law enforcement, to the Department of Human Services. Instead, the center gathers the necessary people and records the forensic interview so that it can be used as evidence in court, said Smith.

The center was founded in 1994 after several years of planning by various community members, spurred by then-Deschutes County District Attorney Mike Dugan and then-Deputy District Attorney Chris Gardner.

Gardner had worked as a prosecutor on child abuse cases in Indiana and began researching best practices in child abuse law and prevention, he said, in part because the repercussions for society can be great.

“We know that children who are abused or seriously neglected are more likely to fall into any category of dysfunctional adult that you can name,” Gardner said.

When he was hired as deputy district attorney in 1989, he brought the ideas to his boss. “(Gardner) showed me the models, and I said, ‘Well, let’s make that a priority,’” said Dugan.

In the ensuing years, Central Oregonians mobilized to get a child advocacy center off the ground.

Members of local Rotary clubs raised awareness and money. Ground was broken in 1993, and in May 1994 the center opened. That first year, it did 29 child abuse evaluations and served 130 children in total — with one full-time staff member — according to an anniversary report put together by the center’s staff.

Since then, the center has served more than 10,000 children in Deschutes, Crook and Jefferson Counties and Warm Springs, according to the report.

Once the building was constructed, the property was turned over to the Deschutes Children’s Foundation, which provides space and property management to local nonprofits at no cost. The KIDS Center does not pay rent on the building, which foundation Director Kim McNamer said saves KIDS Center approximately $57,000 a year. That money is the equivalent to the cost of 29 medical evaluations, she said.

“It continues to be a high need in our community,” said McNamer. “(The KIDS Center has) been able to really work through the recession and the downturn to continue to serve as many children and families as possible.”

Challenges persist — insurance reimbursement rates for medical evaluations have been cut, according to the center’s 2013 annual report — but community support persists, too. A new “Cork & Barrel” fundraiser raised more than $250,000 for the center’s work this summer.

About 30 percent of the organization’s 2013 revenue came from public funds and federal and state grants. The rest is provided by individual, nonprofit and corporate donors, private foundations and revenue from adult education programs.

In 2013, the KIDS Center evaluated or provided consultation on 313 children, according to the report. Services now include preventive training for adults.

A new “Let’s Talk About It” series educates parents about how to discuss sexuality with their children, said Antonson. An Internet safety program addresses rising concern over children’s vulnerability on the Web. Since its inception in 2005, a program called “Darkness to Light: Stewards of Children” has trained just less than 7,000 adults in sexual abuse recognition and prevention, said Smith.

Looking ahead, the center is developing stronger family support services. Last fall, the organization began a pilot project in partnership with the Deschutes County Multidisciplinary Team to conduct forensic interviews with children who witness domestic violence.

“We have just a prime opportunity to help provide tools to the highest-need families,” said Smith.

— Reporter: 541-383-0376,

cwithycombe@bendbulletin.com