(from left) Lauren Carroll of Willow Urgent Care and child abuse advocates Rhonda Ariza, Sandy Komine, and Lorraine Pittman show some of the teddy bears that the medical facility collected for the Child Abuse Response Team.
BY NICK DIAMANTIDES
Staff Writer
Last week, Willow Urgent Care extended its caring hands to help the kind of patients its medical staff rarely treats: child victims of sexual abuse. Willow Urgent Care, located at 2704 East Willow St. in Signal Hill, is a medical facility that provides an alternative to emergency room care. Medical doctors examine walk-in patients without their having to make an appointment.
Several weeks ago, the facility’s staff decided to volunteer their time and donate some of their own money in support of a nonprofit organization known as For the Child (FTC).
“We started collecting teddy bears in early March, which we are donating to For the Child,” said Lauren Carroll, provider relations supervisor for Willow Urgent Care who organized the collection/donation project. “I was very pleased with the response of our employees, the Signal Hill Chamber of Commerce and other organizations in the community. We were able to donate a lot of teddy bears to For the Child.”
In order to publicize FTC’s services to victims of child abuse, Carroll organized an event on April 1, during which FTC’s colorful mobile treatment center (a converted 36-foot-long mobile home) was parked in front of Willow Urgent Care. The vehicle was loaded with teddy bears that were picked up and taken to FTC headquarters at 4565 California Avenue.
Michelle Winterstein, FTC’s executive director, was at the event as well. She noted that the organization was formed in 1996, when Sarah Center and Cedar House merged. Those two nonprofits had been providing free counseling services to children and families since 1974. “We work with children who have been abused, neglected or exposed to violence,” Winterstein said. “We also work with children and teenagers with mental health problems.”
She noted that FTC provides treatment to approximately 450 children per year. In addition, the organization provides treatment to the parents and siblings of abused children because they too have been emotionally traumatized and must learn how to help the child have an emotional and/or psychological healing.
“We also run the child waiting room called Kids Place in the Long Beach Superior Court,” she said. “We have over 6,000 child visits per year in that room.” She explained that volunteers provide free day care and fun activities for children whose parents must appear in court.
“The judges noticed there were unattended baby carriages in the hallways, there were seven-year-old kids watching four-year-olds, there were children were being brought into criminal cases and hearing testimonies pertaining to violence and drug deals,” Winterstein said. “The judges knew that was traumatic for the children so we entered into a partnership with the court.” She noted that Los Angles County Supervisor Don Knabe gave up his field office to provide a room for the children in the court building in downtown Long Beach.
Winterstein added that FTC also uses the mobile treatment center to provide counseling for children and families in the county subsidized Carmalitos Housing Project in North Long Beach, as well as on the campuses of many schools in the Long Beach area. “The economic downturn is resulting in many more cases of child abuse, domestic violence and depression,” she said. “There is a sharp increase in the demand for all the services we provide.”
She explained that FTC’s Child Abuse Response Team (CART) is part of the local sexual assault response team that also includes law enforcement personnel and medical professionals. CART members will use the teddy bears.
According to Winterstein, FTC staff recruit, screen, and train community volunteers who accompany the police when there is a suspected sexual abuse of a child who falls between the ages of infancy and 14 years. “That child is going to have a medical exam and a law enforcement interview in one of the local hospitals,” she said. “We send one of our trained volunteers to be the advocate for the child during that process.”
The volunteer advocates go to provide emotional support, comfort and encouragement to the children who are understandably very afraid of the process. “These teddy bears go with the advocates to go into hands of children,” she said.
Rhonda Ariza has been a volunteer advocate for about a year. “We get called by a nurse and we go to one of the hospitals that does the exams,” she said. “I take a suitcase full of toys and a teddy bear. We are just there to make the children as comfortable as possible during the exam.”
Sandy Komine, also a volunteer advocate, described one particularly tragic case involving a five-year-old boy who was taken away from his drug addict mother and given to his grandmother. “Later it was discovered that the grandmother’s adult son had been sexually abusing the boy for several years,”
“I volunteered because I like the idea of being able to help the children and keep them from being alone during one of the worst times of their lives,” said Lorraine Pittman, another FTC advocate. “The teddy bears really do make the children feel better.”
“For the Child touches children that live all over our community,” Carroll said. “It provides counseling and encouragement to children and families at a very crucial time in their lives. Being able to give the hurting kids a teddy bear is a very important part of their emotional healing.”
Winterstein added, “In times like this, when we don’t have to spend money on bears, this helps us a lot.”
To donate money or a teddy bear, phone Carroll at (562) 981-9500 extension 2223. To donate directly to FTC or to find out about volunteer opportunities, phone (562) 422-8472 or visit forthechild.org
