Safe Place & Stewards of Children:
Two new child-abuse prevention initiatives to be launched at Friday press
conference
For Release: April
17, 2007
Contact: MaryAnn Murphy at 509.473.4827 or Marilee Roloff at
509.624.2378
Press Conference: Friday,
April 20, 2007, noon
America West Bank (41 W Riverside)
Panel to include:
- Bob Daugherty, president, American West Bank
- Chief Anne Kirkpatrick, Spokane Police Department
- Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich, Spokane County Sheriff’s Office
- Chief Bobby Williams, Spokane
Fire Department
- MaryAnn Murphy, president, Partners with Families &
Children
- Marilee Roloff, president, Volunteers of America
Spokane, Wash.—Recent
coverage of child-abuse issues in the Spokesman-Review’s Our Kids: Our Business
campaign has prompted the question: what can I do to help? Law enforcement,
business and social-service leaders have an answer – get involved in two new
child-abuse prevention initiatives.
At a press conference on Friday, April 20 local nonprofit
groups will launch Safe Place
(Volunteers of America) and Stewards of Children (Partners with Families &
Children). These community-collaboration projects offer concrete opportunities
for local individuals within businesses and other organizations to combat child
abuse and neglect. American West Bank will announce its participation
as the first business to step forward to support the projects. The event will
be held at noon in the American West
Bank at 41 W. Riverside in downtown
Spokane.
“These programs extend the doors of the nonprofit agencies
to reach more kids and prevent abuse and neglect. When the community takes an
active, cooperative role like this, we can steer kids away from dangerous
alternatives,” explains Chief Anne Kirkpatrick
of the Spokane Police Department. “We not only save the child, we also cut the costs
affiliated with drug use, teen pregnancy and violent crime.”
Safe Place makes it possible for any youth to access help at
locations including banks, fast food restaurants, convenience stores, fire
stations, libraries and other organizations that display the distinctive
yellow-and-black Safe Place
sign. Youth can easily find help at Safe Place
sites in their own neighborhood and connect with immediate safety and support
services. A similar Volunteers of America program, based on the national Safe
PlaceCoeur
d’Alene since 1999 and currently works with nearly 100
businesses, churches and other organizations. model, has been operating successfully in
Stewards of Children is a sexual-abuse prevention training
program that educates adults to prevent, recognize and react responsibly to
child sexual abuse, and motivates them to courageous action to protect
children. The Stewards of Children program is designed for organizations and
corporations that serve children and youth and is delivered through workshops
administered by the highly trained staff of Partners with Families &
Children.
Learn more about:
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