College Training Center Makes Debut

Jim Lay, Executive Director of Facilities and Construction Managemant at Northwest Arkansas Community College, right, explains to NWACC Foundation board member Mike Luttrell how the mock home training area can be easily reconfigured to represent a variety of scenarios during an open house to celebrate the opening of the Melba Shewmaker National Child Protection Training Center at the Northwest Arakansas Community College campus in Bentonville on Thursday February 6, 2014.

Jim Lay, Executive Director of Facilities and Construction Managemant at Northwest Arkansas Community College, right, explains to NWACC Foundation board member Mike Luttrell how the mock home training area can be easily reconfigured to represent a variety of scenarios during an open house to celebrate the opening of the Melba Shewmaker National Child Protection Training Center at the Northwest Arakansas Community College campus in Bentonville on Thursday February 6, 2014.

Friday, February 7, 2014

BENTONVILLE — Melba Shewmaker decided recently to part with a favorite bronze sculpture that features two children playing with a tortoise.

The sculpture, which weighs hundreds of pounds, now sits outside the new Melba Shewmaker Southern Region National Child Protection Training Center.

Fast Facts

Child Abuse

• Each year about 1 million children are confirmed victims of abuse and neglect.

• A 2000 Child Welfare League of America study shows the average turnover among child protection professionals is 40 percent for workers and 28 percent for supervisors, though there are agencies documenting turnover rates as high as 80 to 85 percent. The turnover rates indicate many service organizations don't have an experienced investigative team because of burnout.

• The Arkansas Division of Children and Family Services responded to almost 28,000 reports of child maltreatment last fiscal year.

• The National Child Protection Training Center (Winona State Center, Speaker’s Bureau and the Bentonville center) has trained more than 70,000 professionals in all 50 states and 17 countries.

Source: NorthWest Arkansas Community College

“It’s very appropriate,” Shewmaker said of the sculpture, delivered to the site Wednesday.

It was only the latest contribution by Shewmaker, who donated $1.3 million to help renovate the building serving as the training center’s new home at NorthWest Arkansas Community College.

On Thursday, the center hosted its grand opening, the culmination of several years of work by college officials and community partners. Construction crews finished renovating the building in December after about nine months of work.

The college’s training center has been operating since 2010 without a dedicated facility. It now has a 16,534-square-foot facility that includes such features as forensic interview rooms, a mock courtroom, practice medical exam rooms and a two-story mock home.

The college is one of two locations providing training to people who work with children to recognize, report and respond to child abuse. The other center is in Winona, Minn.

Victor Vieth, executive director emeritus of the training center in Minnesota, spoke inside the mock courtroom at Thursday’s ceremony, which was attended by several dozen people.

“The purpose of this building is to end, to finally end, the mass misery we call child abuse,” Vieth said.

“The very walls of this building cry out to our children, it is safe to come out now.”

Among those who helped make the Bentonville training center a reality were different local and state politicians.

“When it comes to children, there is no such thing as partisanship,” Vieth said.

Vieth first began talking with NorthWest Arkansas Community College officials about bringing a training center to the area about seven years ago, he said.

“The only thing better than a dream is a dream fulfilled, and that’s what today represents,” Vieth said.

The college’s center has trained thousands of law enforcement officers, nurses, social workers and other child protection professionals since 2010, according to the college.

The first training session to be held in the new facility is scheduled for Feb. 27-28. Organized by St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Fayetteville, the session, “When Faith Hurts,” is meant for local church workers to understand how to recognize and respond to child abuse.

Among the training center’s most notable features is the two-story mock house, which is functional. The kitchen has all the appliances found in a typical kitchen, including a stove, microwave and toaster. A child’s piece of artwork hangs on the refrigerator.

Training center staff will use a variety of furnishings to change the mock home’s appearance to fit their needs.

Some college classes have been taught at the center this semester. Diana Nagel teaches a class on child psychopathology in Room 1037.

“It’s a really nice classroom because it’s small,” Nagel said. “We get to form real personal relationships.”

Dan Shewmaker, Melba Shewmaker’s son and a member of the college’s board, spoke Thursday on behalf of his family. About the sculpture, he said he suggested to his mother she donate it to the training center.

The training center will be entirely for adults, but the sculpture will remind those adults of why they’re there, he said.