North County residents, community groups and businesses, unite to aid Palomar Health Foundation’s child abuse prevention programs and sexual assault response teams
SAN DIEGO–Private residents, family foundations, community groups and businesses in San Diego’s North County have generously responded to a recent plea from the Palomar Health Foundation to help cover a financial deficit in the operating budgets of the Child Abuse Prevention (CAP) and Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) programs, which together care for as many as 550 victims annually.
As a result the services, which Palomar Health has helped fund for the past thirty years, will continue to be available to children, adolescents and adults who are victims of assault, sparing them a far longer trip to the only other qualified forensic interviewing and medical treatment center in San Diego County.
Those who are involved with the program are pleased that more than $135,000 dollars were raised toward the $200,000 goal last year. To celebrate the accomplishment and thank those that helped sustain the programs, the office of Forensic Services held an open house on January 21. Elected officials, the District Attorney, law enforcement officers, donors and program supporters gathered in support of the important North County service, and to help shift the focus to long-term sustainability.
“Our North County center plays an integral part in the legal system,” states Cathy McLennan, supervisor, Forensic Health Services Child Abuse Department. “At the request of law enforcement agencies, we conduct timely forensic interviews and gather forensic evidence, as we provide immediate and compassionate care for the victims. Our findings allow deputies to make arrests, and enable the district attorney’s office to effectively prosecute perpetrators. If we were unable to maintain our center in Escondido, child and adult victims – in some of the worst moments of their lives – would have to travel many miles for help, which contributes to re-traumatizing them. The community where these victims live is the community that needs to take care of them.”
The Foundation’s fundraising efforts for CAP and SART began in June 2013 and have demonstrated enough broad-based support to win approval for the program to be continued into the new year. Long-term funding solutions are being sought with the help of the supervisors, law agencies and communities
the program serves. All funds raised in excess of the immediate program goal will be held in reserve at the Palomar Health Foundation and applied to the upcoming year(s).
Ann Braun, President of the Palomar Health Foundation, states that fundraising efforts will continue on behalf of the dozens of volunteers, victims and foundation staff members dedicated to preserving the program.
“We are grateful for the outpouring from so many individual donors, community groups, foundations and corporations,” states Braun. “But our efforts are far from over. While Palomar Health and its Foundation will continue to fund a portion of CAP and SART’s budgets, the programs must rely on the public to fill in remaining financial gaps. We are looking for long-term, sustainable funding solutions so those children and adults who need help in the future, in their time of crisis, can obtain it as quickly as possible.”
The programs have served more than 15,000 victims since their inception, and have helped the San Diego County District Attorney’s office successfully convict assault suspects.
“The CAP program at Palomar Health is directly related to our ability to convict child molesters and rapists,” states San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis. “We need the forensic interviewers, the medical doctors and the sexual assault nurses as witnesses to effectively prosecute all of our rape and child molestation cases. Without CAP, San Diego’s most serious criminals may not be effectively held accountable.”
To sustain the programs, staff intends to spend more time fundraising for CAP and SART, in addition to conducting interviews, performing administrative duties and writing grant requests. “We are all tremendously invested – professionally and emotionally,” says McLennan. “We don’t spend a lot of money, but we are efficient and effective. We know how important it is for us to continue to provide these life-changing services.”
Those who are interested in providing support to CAP and SART should contact Kimberly Rideout Cardoso at Kimberly.Cardoso@PalomarHealth.org or 760.739.2961.
