Community Service Spotlight
Editor’s Note: There are over 100 organizations in Whatcom County working to provide supportive services to those experiencing chronic poverty and its associated effects: addiction, homelessness, incarceration, mental illness, and unemployment. We have contacted the organization appearing in this column and asked them to explain their mission.
by Mike Cook
Founded nearly 30 years ago, the Brigid Collins Family Center is grounded in one simple but little-known fact, at least it was little known to me. More than 10 percent of our children will suffer some form of sexual assault before the age of 18! You probably need to give this fact a moment to sink in, as 10 percent is the equivalent of an epidemic, and, to most of us, this epidemic is invisible.
Unless a child in your family or a friend suffers some form of sexual assault, you can and likely have gone through much of your life blind to this “condition” in our society — I am sure about that in my case. Why is this the reality? Much of the invisibility of this tragedy results from the simple fact that in many cases the perpetrator is likely to be a family member or close friend. The victims, especially the very young, ave limited ability to understand what’s happened to them or they live in environments that have limited ability to recognize the signs of abuse.
Two-Hour Training
To learn more about this, and I hope you will, contact Brigid Collins and ask them about their Stewards of Children program. This is a two-hour training intended to educate adults in how to recognize and respond to child abuse. If we rely strictly on the ability of the victims to advocate for themselves (remember we are talking about children), the assault may never be discovered, and the child will come of age permanently damaged and often will become perpetrators them-selves, thereby continuing the cycle of abuse. And, if you are interested in learning more, contact the Brigid Collins Family Support Center. Someone there will explain the program in greater detail and help you plan to attend the Stewards program yourself or possibly make it available to those in your place of work (my favorite approach). Early recognition of the signs of some form of predatory behavior is the absolute best way to prevent long-term abusive situations from occurring.
Early recognition of sexual abuse is no doubt the best entry for an agency like Brigid Collins. However, many instances of abuse can and do take place. Stewards of Children is preventative in nature. Beyond prevention, actual treatment is available in several forms.
Once Brigid Collins has become aware of an instance of abuse our other services kick in …
Children’s Advocacy Center
A Children’s Advocacy Center (CAC) is a specialized facility designed to support and protect children who have been victims of abuse or neglect. Our centers offer a coordinated approach to handling cases of child abuse by bringing together various professionals (known as the Multi-Disciplinary Team or MDT) — such as law enforcement, child protective services, medical personnel, and mental health professionals — in one location.
The main goals of the CAC are to:
1. Provide a Safe Environment: Ensure that children can speak about their experiences in a safe, comfortable setting.
2. Streamline Services: Offer a range of services in one place to minimize the number of times a child must recount their trauma and to reduce the stress and confusion often associated with the legal and investigatory processes.
3. Support Recovery: Provide medical evaluations, therapy, and other support services to help children heal and recover from their experiences.
4. Coordinate Investigations: Facilitate communication and cooperation among various agencies involved in the investigation and prosecution of abuse cases.
Our CAC’s in Whatcom and Skagit counties play a crucial role in ensuring that the needs of the child are prioritized and that they receive comprehensive care and support throughout the legal and recovery processes.
Navigating Public Agency Network
It is hard not to overemphasize the value of the CAC. Childhood sexual abuse is certainly damaging to the actual children involved. Beyond this, the responsibility for navigating the network of public agencies most likely falls to someone in or close to the child involved. These people are often, without their awareness, victims of some amount of the trauma themselves. The complexity of the system of services is difficult to appreciate and the connections not necessarily obvious. Toss in family trauma and you’ve created a formula that does not favor a child or a family realizing a successful outcome.
It takes stamina to navigate the system and family circumstances can often make the journey even more difficult. Our staff is trained to not only help our clients, and their families, get the help they need, and they are able to do so without the emotional and psychological baggage that is so naturally a part of this sort of traumatic experience.
Once a family has begun their healing journey at the CAC, our specialized therapy team steps in, offering seven evidence-based therapies targeting trauma in young people. Our dedication to healing the whole family means we offer support services wherever we can, in order to ensure the process is a comfortable one.
New Mission Statement
For over 30 years, the mission of Brigid Collins Family Support Center has been to end child abuse. The leadership team and staff spent the last year digging into that statement and identifying whether that still reflects the work we are currently doing. Fascinatingly, the resounding answer was no, it does not. After almost a year of deep introspection (and a lot of work!), the board and staff at Brigid Collins Family Support Center are prepared to launch their new mission statement in 2025.
This new mission and vision best characterize the work being done currently, and aims to address inclusion, healing, hope and justice for the children of our community.
So I will leave you now, with the new mission and vision statement and encourage you all the look into the work of Brigid Collins and find out what part you might play in the fight to end child abuse in our community.
Brigid Collins Family Support Center’s mission is to strengthen our community’s health and resilience by providing comprehensive support to children and their families. Our vision is a thriving community where no child suffers.
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Mike Cook has completed two terms as a board member and currently is Board Emeritus, an informal and unofficial title he have given himself as a way to describe his continued relationship with Brigid Collins, serving primarily as advisor to the development team. One of his primary interests: developing funding sources through private individuals since these generally provide Brigid Collins the most flexibility in how funds are used.
