Amani Center to host fundraiser

The Amani Center is Columbia County's nonprofit child abuse assessment and children's advocacy center that provides medical and forensic investigative services for kids suspected to be victims of abuse, neglect, witness to violence, and drug endangerment.

The center provides critical extensive services and often works with law enforcement agencies to help bring justice and safety to children who are in harmful and dangerous environments and situations. The organization received its non-profit status in 2000 and began working with children in 2003.

“The reason we exist is so that children only have to tell their story one time in a trauma-informed child developmentally appropriate way,” said Amani Center Deputy Director Beth Polito. “We are a partner in the investigation with law enforcement and DHS, but we do not make the determination on whether or not to remove a child or move forward with criminal prosecution. We are the evidence collectors.”

The Amani Center works with a network of partners to provide a variety of services which includes a newly added mental health program that helps move children who have experienced trauma out of the assessment phase and into specific mental health programs.

“It’s for a prescribed amount of time, usually short term where kids and families can get stabilized with their resources and needs and then move into a longer term therapy process or program,” Polito said. “Therapy in Columbia County is very limited, pediatric therapy is limited even further, and trauma-based pediatric therapy is even further limited.”

Funding for the center comes from a variety of sources including federal funding from the Department of Justice, state funding also from the Department of Justice, Victim of Crime Act funding (federal funding passed down through the state), foundation funding from private foundations, private individual contributions, and annual and ongoing fundraising events.

“We would love to see every child that is experiencing trauma,” said Polito. “A lot of times, just because of our capacity, our partners will self-select who they want to send to us because they know that we can't get everybody in and we would prefer that not be happening. We can be referrals for mental health, medical care, SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) and housing assistance, and all of the things people don't know they have available to them. Our victim advocates are well-versed in the types of resources we have, and when they come up against something that doesn't exist in our resource wheelhouse they are avid researchers on how to get that need met for our clients. We also offer medical reimbursement so we can bill some insurance, but it doesn't normally cover the entire cost of what it takes to service a child, so that's why we need all of those arms of funding,"

The Amani Center just held The Hullabaloo, their biggest fundraiser of the year, on Sept. 13 and are now preparing for a number of events in the fall and around Christmas time. One of these is a “breakfast and brunch with Santa” the first Saturday and Sunday of December.

In Rainier, The Ol’ Pasttime Tavern is host to ongoing weekly and monthly fundraisers for The Amani Center, offering Bingo every Friday night at 6 p.m. and Bunco once a month at 6:30 p.m. The upcoming Bunco fundraiser will be held Monday, Sept. 22 at 6:30 p.m., with a cost of $15 to participate. Polito shared that all of the money raised during Bunco goes directly to the agency and they receive 15 percent of proceeds from Bingo.

“All of those funds [from Bunco and Bingo] go into our unrestricted funding, which helps us fill in the gaps where we have a lot of restrictions on how we can spend money,” said Polito. “There's a lot of rules around state and federal funding and sometimes rules around foundation funding, too. One of the things we're working on right now is prevention, and it's very difficult to get specific funding for prevention. We know that it's very important to get information out into our community on educating kids and families about how to prevent child abuse, how to recognize it, and how to report it. The unrestricted funds coming from Bunco, Bingo, the Hullabaloo, and the Race Against Child Abuse help us to do the work that we know needs to be done that we're not allowed to spend restricted funds on.”

The Ol Pastime Tavern is located at 105 E A St. in Rainier. For more info, call 503-556-2442.