Photo by Kevin Prieto

Children in Central Oregon are safer because of the work of the Kids Intervention and Diagnostic Service (KIDS) Center, a nonprofit organization committed to assisting children and families who have experienced abuse. Sexual, physical and emotional abuse of kids knows no economic, ethnic or social boundaries. Child abuse occurs in all kinds of families and when it happens in our community, KIDS Center provides a safe place for victims.

KIDS Center, which in 2014 celebrated 20 years of helping children, is unique in that out of the 21 child abuse intervention centers in Oregon, it is one of only a handful that provides such comprehensive services.

Those services include a medical evaluation — a head-to-toe medical exam that not only checks for physical and sexual abuse, but general health concerns. A forensic interview collects the child’s story in a safe environment and a forensically sound manner.

Families of abused children can also be victims so the staff works with family members and connects them to therapy and other community resources to help reduce life stressors and future episodes of abuse.

Through their partnership with Deschutes County Behavioral Health, on-site therapists help children heal through individual, group and family counseling. Various therapeutic modalities are used such as art, play and Parent Child Interactive Therapy.

“The therapy provided at KIDS Center is specifically designed to help decrease the long-term impacts of trauma for the child,” said Shelly Smith, executive director at KIDS Center.

The organization’s educational efforts are aimed at prevention. It offers training for the community in how to detect and prevent child abuse. It produces publications for schools, parents and caregivers to teach children about body safety.

All of these services and educational efforts are the result of a grassroots effort in the community.

In 1990, citizens received “subpoenas” from then-Deschutes County District Attorney Mike Dugan to attend a presentation at Shevlin’s Aspen Hall where community leaders and local citizens learned more about the impacts of child abuse and rallied participants to take action.

“Most child abuse intervention centers nationally were not established through grassroots efforts like the community here,” said Smith.

Twenty-five years ago, the community came together with the goal of having one place where abused children could receive services, a place that would limit the number of times they had to tell their stories.

“KIDS Center was built by the community for the community,” said Robin Antonson, the director of development and prevention at KIDS Center.

The Rotary Club of Bend raised $50,000 in seed money, and local individuals’ cash contributions, donated materials and labor helped to launch KIDS Center in 1994.

In 2015, KIDS Center is in a much different financial situation, but community support is still very much evident. Antonson said that nearly 60 percent of the $1.8 million annual budget comes from local individuals and businesses.

KIDS Center receives little federal support. Oregon allocates money from criminal fines and assessments leveraged from offenders to support Oregon child abuse intervention centers. St. Charles, Deschutes Children’s Foundation, Deschutes County and local law enforcement agencies also donate and provide in-kind support to ensure that the work of KIDS Center continues.

Last year, that combination of funding enabled 680 children to receive evaluation services, family support and mental health counseling and more than 1,160 adults to be trained in prevention and education programs. A total of 1,842 children, families and adults were directly assisted through all of KIDS Center’s services.

“KIDS Center is an invaluable asset to law enforcement and the community,” said Captain Scott Beard with the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office. “They care for the children and the families involved during and long after the criminal case is over.”