Orangewood Children and Family Shelter
THE EMERGENCY SHELTER THAT A COMMUNITY BUILT
In the 1980s, community leaders in Orange County realized that the area’s abused and neglected children needed a safe shelter whose doors were always open. Thirty years later, Orangewood Children and Family Center is a national leader in the compassionate and comprehensive assessment, intervention, care, shelter, and placement of the county’s most vulnerable children.
The center, located on a 10-acre campus in the city of Orange, includes a 24-hour emergency shelter facility, where more than half of children from birth to age 17 receive a safe placement within 23 hours of arrival. The center also houses a family visitation center, the Child Abuse Services Team (CAST), medical facilities, an on-ground school, and a mental health evaluation unit.
Children who are admitted to the center can stay up to 35 days in one of the six residential cottages. Highly trained staff members help ease transition and a dedicated member of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department is onsite to ensure each child’s safety. On campus, the children attend school, receive services, and are eventually placed with family members or in foster care.
The Orangewood campus also has amenities, such as a pool, gym, game room and playing field.
“We never say no to a child who is a victim of abuse and neglect,” says Orangewood Children and Family Center Manager Denise Churchill. As a result, more than 500 children a year are processed through the emergency shelter.
Orangewood’s success is largely due to the strong support of community partners and volunteers.
“Volunteers play a huge role in our children’s lives,” Churchill says.
Groups such as Orangewood PALS and LA CASA, the Children’s Assistance Support Auxiliary, provide volunteers, mentors, events, and therapy arts to Orangewood residents. Donations of clothes and other items for children from age 6 to 17 are accepted Monday through Friday at the Orangewood offices. To learn more about becoming a volunteer, visit ocgov.com/gov/volunteer/.
CAST
Creating a safe space to report crimes against children
In Orange County, one innovative, multidisciplinary team has created a program that reduces trauma for victims of child sexual abuse, increases conviction rates and connects victims with valuable services to aid in the healing process.
The Child Abuse Services Team, or CAST, was the brainchild of a 1984 blue-ribbon committee. The goal was to create a new program that would minimize trauma for young victims of abuse in the judicial system. The current system wasn’t working — a child was subjected to up to 20 interviews by the end of a court case. In the end, the child was scared, retraumatized, and lacked access to services that could help in healing.
What came of that committee was CAST, a team of professionals whose mission is to help the child and stop the cycle of abuse. The program was so successful, CAST opened its services to all victims of child abuse in 1999.
Now housed inside of Orangewood Children and Family Center, CAST uses colorful interview rooms full of toys, snacks and crafts to relax and comfort the abused child. The child is only asked to sit for one interview by a trained forensic expert. That interview is recorded and reused throughout the entire investigation and court process.Then the whole team gets to work.
“We get all of the key people together to do the best job for the victim of abuse,” says CAST coordinator Jennifer Palmquist. “We are a cohesive and effective group.”
The CAST team is comprised of county social workers, law enforcement, prosecutors, medical professionals, therapists, volunteer advocates and forensic interviewers. All of these people collaborate to advocate for the child, investigate crimes efficiently, and ensure the child and non-offending parents get access to social services.
The group is very successful. CAST interviews approximately 600 to 700 child victims a year. Of the CAST-handled cases that are prosecuted by the Orange County District Attorney’s sexual assault unit, prosecutors have a 90 percent conviction rate, according to Palmquist. “When highly trained professionals come together, we catch what other people miss,” Palmquist says.
