Cow Creek Tribe funds will help Kids’ HOPE fight child sexual abuse through education, Jan. 12

The Kids’ HOPE Center in Coos Bay has been awarded a $3,500 grant to help train Coos County citizens to be able to spot the telltale signs of child sexual abuse, and what to do once those signs have been discovered. The Cow Creek Umpqua Indian Foundation, on Thursday, Jan. 7, presented the grant to Kids’ HOPE program director JoAnne Shorb at a ceremony in Douglas County. Shorb said the funds will help Kids’ HOPE train a pool of facilitators to help meet their mission goal of training five-percent of the Coos County population with the Darkness to Light—Stewards of Children curriculum. “There has been such a demand for these classes in the community that we need to add more trained facilitators to cover those requests,” she said. Darkness to Light, a national organization founded in 2000 (d2l.org), created the Stewards of Children program in 2005, using real people and real stories to show how we all can protect children in our communities. “That helps make it real,” Shorb said. “These are adult survivors telling of their experiences as children. They are mirror images of the kids that we are seeing come through our doors now, but as adults.” Kids’ HOPE, an agency of Bay Area Hospital, investigates abuse allegations from communities throughout Coos County and beyond. It follows a “medical model” of abuse investigations, focusing primarily on meeting the physical and emotional needs of victims. Cow Creek Umpqua Indian Foundation, based in Roseburg, is the philanthropic arm of the Cow Creek Band of the Umpqua Tribe of Indians. It makes grants each year to non-profit organizations in Douglas, Coos, Lane, Deschutes, Klamath, Jackson and Josephine counties. Since its beginning in 1997, the Cow Creek Foundation has awarded over $10 million in grants. The grant was presented at the tribe’s Seven Feathers Hotel and Casino Resort Convention Center in Canyonville.