NORMAN — Although most don’t realize it at the time, some of the abused and neglected children who walk through the welcoming doors at Norman’s Center for Children and Families Inc. already have a connection with center director Katie Fitzgerald.
As a 7-year-old growing up in Michigan, Fitzgerald was molested at a girlfriend’s house by the friend’s father. She knew at the time that something was very wrong but didn’t know how to verbalize her feelings.
“I was crying and upset and my mom asked me all the right questions and I still couldn’t tell her,” Fitzgerald recalls. “Children can’t easily talk about what happens to them.”
Through play therapy, counseling and other services, the healing can begin. “I know that there’s a place for kids here. I didn’t have that,” says Fitzgerald, director for nearly 18 months.
She shared her story publicly at last year’s CCFI fundraising luncheon. Only through dialogue and education will we understand abuse and neglect can happen in all families. Later on, Fitzgerald and her friends discovered there were several victims. Even as close friends, they didn’t confide in each other.
“We just need to get more comfortable talking about it,” she said.
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An Oklahoman for about six years, Fitzgerald came to the center, founded in 1969 as Juvenile Services Inc., after working at OU’s Women in Leadership program and for the Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy. In Michigan, she worked for the Kellogg Foundation and with the United Way. Much of her work focused on vulnerable youth and families.
“But everything I’ve ever done never felt complete until I came here. I can see kids and families here that we are having an impact on,” she said. “It’s an incredible opportunity for me.”
She manages about 25 full and part-time employees and a $1.2 million budget. Funding comes from state agency contracts, individual and corporate donor partners and Norman’s United Way campaign.
Programs, besides healing child abuse and neglect, include support and education for parents, divorce visitation arbitration, parents assistance, teen parenting, neighborhood centers and an emergency diaper and formula closet. Last year, they handed out 32,000 diapers.
The Neighborhood Centers program cares for and provides safe, after school, evening and weekend activities for about 50 kids a day at Longfellow and Irving Middle Schools and Kennedy and Wilson elementaries. They’ll host an “I love my neighborhood” block party at Wilson from noon to 2 p.m. Saturday.
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CCFI, along with Bethesda Alternative and Mary Abbott Children’s House, will mark April as child abuse prevention month with a variety of activities. Fitzgerald encourages public tours of the 7,500-square-foot center, located in the former Veterans Center complex on the Griffin Hospital campus. Tours are 8 and 8:30 a.m. Thursday.
They’ll host legislators for a tour this week. Lawmakers will be making funding decisions that impact all who work with families and children. The numbers of investigated cases of abuse are down significantly but only due to a policy shift by the Department of Human Services.
Cleveland County claimed about 350 of the state’s 12,000 plus confirmed cases of abuse and neglect last year. A budget cutting proposal to close the health department’s office of child abuse prevention troubles Fitzgerald. In rough economic times, family stress tends to increase. Rural areas don’t always have safe places like CCFI, Bethesda or Abbott House.
“All around the state, these kids and their families need so much. We’re able to do what we can but further reducing these servics right now is not the answer,” Fitzgerald said. “In most communities, there literally is nothing else for them.”
Andy Rieger editor@normantranscript.com 366-3543
