SPRINGDALE — Neither Jordan Greer nor Chris Harrell work with the children they help.
Greer and Harrell, both of Fayetteville, have long been involved with the Children’s Safety Center. Based in Springdale, the nonprofit center provides support and advocacy for children in Washington County who have been abused.
Greer and Harrell volunteer tohelp make this possible, although neither has ever worked directly with the children who have been abused.
“What we do is raise money so that the experts can do their jobs,” says Greer, who has been involved with the center for four years. “I really don’t know that Chris or I would feel comfortable working with the kids ourselves; it’s such a fragile situation. We’re really just here to help fund everything that goes on behind the scenes.”
To that end, the men are co-chairmen of the center’s fifth annual Dream Big fundraiser, along with James Sheppard. Dream Big is Saturday night at the Fayetteville Town Center, and tickets are $50. A table for 10 is $450.
The event features dinner, drinks, a silent auction and music. Organizers strive to make the event a fun, relaxed affair, and so suggested attireis “cocktail casual” - khakis and jeans for men, jeans or summer dresses for women.
The fundraising goal is $30,000. Another goal is to create awareness of the center and its mission.
“They’re fighting for people [who] really can’t stand up for themselves,” says Harrell, who is in his third year volunteering. “I think that’s really important. My wife [Theresa, a former committee member] got me involved, and when I saw what she was doing and what the safety center was all about, I felt really moved by it.”
The center was founded in 1997, and has served more than 5,000 children, from newborns to 17 year-olds. The majority of cases the center sees are related to sexualabuse, executive director Elizabeth Shackelford says.
Cases start when the Arkansas child abuse hot line - (800) 482-5964 - is called, which opens an investigation. Children are taken to the center - “hopefully by a nonoffending parent or guardian,”Shackelford says - where a forensic interview is done.
If the child needs a forensic medical exam, the centerhas a nurse trained to do the procedure. Children then receive an advocate who follows them throughout theinvestigation and often beyond, and there is a therapy program on site.
Last year, the center saw545 children.
“The numbers are staggering,” Harrell says. “I’d have thought, ‘Oh, these are isolated cases, this can’t be a widespread epidemic,’ but [545] people in one year coming in here just blew my mind. I don’t think anybody realizes that many kids are coming in.”
The center’s walls are covered with handprints, left by children who have been helped. (Newborns leave footprints.)
The handprints go from tiny to nearly adult-size, and they convey a message to children at the center for the first time: They are not alone.
“Before I got involved with this organization, this was something I never thought about,” Greer says. “With the scandal that’s been so publicized at Penn State, a lot more people are coming out of their bubbles and [realizing] this does go on. But what people aren’t realizing is, ‘It’s going on in my community.’” For more information about the Children’s Safety Center, call (479) 872-6183 or visit
cscdreambig. eventbrite.com.
Northwest Profile, Pages 31 on 07/15/2012