Last week, more than 100 community members met for a one-day summit to develop a community-wide action plan to address child neglect in Deschutes County resulting from parental abuse of addictive substances.

The Child Neglect Summit was sponsored in part by the Deschutes County Commission on Children &Families. Event goals included raising awareness of child neglect; educating the community on successful interventions that support families struggling with substance abuse; engaging participants to create community-based solutions that address child safety; and, most importantly, mobilizing community stakeholders to develop an action plan for Deschutes County’s most vulnerable children and their families.

Discussions at the Summit established that neglectful parenting is the result of the erosion or collapse of social norms around parenting. Little by little, parents exceed or violate parenting social norms. Over the last decade, there has been a downward trend in physical and sexual abuse, and an upward trend in neglect. With methamphetamine abusers, binging from substance abuse and crashing as a result creates the outcome of a lack of supervision and neglect for the child in that situation.

Attendees met in groups to identify ways to involve the community while maximize existing resources. Some examples include:

1. Train agency members who work to prevent and respond to child abuse and neglect, in

motivational interviewing techniques

2. Establish a visitation house for Department of Human Services clients. A visitation house is a

safe, nurturing, home-like environment where parents who have had their children placed

in foster care may visit.

3. Train community partners in the Oregon Safety Model. The Oregon Safety Model was implemented by the Department of Human Services to achieve a more effective approach to the evaluation of child abuse and neglect. The assessment includes a determination of whether or not a child is safe. It introduces the concepts of present and impending danger.

As the Summit ended, the 2008 Spirit of Collaboration Award was given to KIDS Center Director Bob Smit. His unparalleled leadership has continually brought Central Oregon child and family agencies and individuals together to actively talk about combating child abuse. Bob was nominated by peers.

The 2008 Spirit of Collaboration Award is the Deschutes County Commission on Children & Families’ tool to recognize collaborative efforts and honor an extraordinary individual who has provided leadership in developing community programs of support for children, youth and families.

As the Director of the KIDS Center, Bob has led the agency's staff to work as an integrated team and has emphasized staff's role in being positive partners with agencies in the community. In his director role, Bob has also used his passion and commitment for child abuse prevention to be an outstanding advocate for the Darkness to Light child sexual abuse prevention program and for the formation of the Deschutes Child Abuse System Task Force. Without him, neither of these entities would be at their current levels.

There were over 100 participants who attended the Summit including: the Department of Human Services-Child Welfare, Ready*Set*Go, Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA), Deschutes County Mental Health and Health Departments and the Commission on Children & Families, Family Drug Court, the Family Access Network, The KIDS Center, Head Start, and the State Courts.

The Summit was presented in partnership by the Deschutes County Commission on Children & Families, the Meth Action Coalition, Deschutes County Child Abuse Multi-Disciplinary Team, Deschutes Child Abuse System Task Force, Portland State University’s Center for Improvement of Child and Family Services, and the Oregon Children’s Justice Act Task Force.

For more information about the Commission on Children and Families’ Child Neglect Summit, please call 322-7461.