Liberty House - Changing Hurt into Hope

Show Notes

Today, we are talking about Liberty House, a Children’s Advocacy Center in Salem. Our guest today is Peter Carrillo, Liberty House’s Director of Community Engagement, Prevention, and Development.

https://libertyhousecenter.org/

What is Dallas, Oregon Podcast?

Your source for city updates, behind-the-scenes stories, and conversations with the people shaping our community.

SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the
Dallas, Oregon Podcast, your

quick and informative source for
what's happening in and around

the city.

I'm Charlie Mitchell, the
Economic and Community

Development Director for the
City of Dallas.

And each episode, we bring
together city staff, local

leaders, and community members
to discuss the projects, people,

and possibilities shaping
Dallas.

Today we're going to be talking
about the Liberty House, a

children's advocacy center in
Salem.

And our guest today is Peter
Carrillo, Liberty House's

Director of Community
Engagement, Prevention and

Development.

Peter, thank you so much for
joining us today.

Yeah, of course.

Thanks for having me.

Now, Peter, before we get into
the details, can you share a

little bit of a kind of an
overview of the Liberty House

and your mission?

SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so Liberty
House is the children's advocacy

center serving Polk and Marion
County.

So we are located in Salem, but
we have kind of a broad reach.

We serve kids who are referred
to us for concerns of abuse or

neglect or other forms of kind
of severe childhood trauma.

SPEAKER_00: And what are the
ages of the children that the

Liberty House serves?

SPEAKER_01: We serve children
ages zero to 18.

It kind of depends a little bit
on the program, but we also go a

little bit beyond that in cases
of any kind of developmental

disability or anything like
that.

Um and then we also have a
therapy department, and in that

we actually serve children and
adults who have experienced some

kind of trauma.

SPEAKER_00: Okay, wonderful.

Now I know you're located in
Salem.

So what exactly is the distance
that you serve out of Salem?

SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we serve all
of Marion and Polk counties.

That is a uh just about 2,500
square miles of a service area.

Um little bit of trivia.

It's actually larger than the
state of Delaware.

SPEAKER_00: No kidding.

Yeah, that's great trivia.

Um, yeah, it's amazing.

Um, so what are the specific
services that Liberty House

provides?

SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we try to
provide a complete response to

early childhood trauma.

So that takes three different
forms for us.

We have a medical clinic, we
have a therapy program, and we

have a prevention program as
well.

So in the medical clinic, what
we do is we provide a full

medical assessment for children
who are preferred for concerns.

And one of the things I always
like to say is within that,

we're not looking for abuse.

We're looking for what happened.

We're just looking for objective
information.

So that's a really important
factor because sometimes we

actually rule that out as a
concern.

Um, so that's one part of it.

The other part that they get at
the medical clinic is called a

forensic interview, which is
really just a fact-finding

conversation where kids can
disclose often for the very

first time um what's happened to
them.

Um and then beyond that, we have
the, you know, that's been our

oldest program.

That's the one we started with.

In 2016, we added on a therapy
program because we didn't want

to say, oh, here's, you know,
your medical assessment.

Here's all of the things you you
get from this and buy, have a

good life.

You know, we wanted to provide
some follow-on care.

So our therapy program allows us
to provide ongoing healing

services for kids who have been
through some of that stuff.

Um, and then in 2018, we said,
you know, well, we can't just

respond to this problem and just
hope that it goes away.

We actually have to get out
ahead of this and do some things

to prevent it.

So we started that program in
2018 in order to kind of go out

into the community and give
people some of the skills and

the knowledge that they need in
order to stop the problem before

kids need our other services.

So between that good response
and that prevention work, we

kind of are going all at all at
this issue.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's
wonderful.

Um and can you touch on any of
the many resources that Liberty

House provides as well?

SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we also do a
lot of family support.

So along with just the services
for kids, we also kind of

connect people to other things
they might need, especially if

it's something that we don't
provide, like maybe there's a a

specific service that they need,
or like sometimes the state of

Oregon has victim compensation
as well.

So we actually have people that
work with uh families in order

to help them out and to kind of
get them to those those other

services that they might need.

SPEAKER_00: Very good.

Um, now this is an important
question.

Now, where can people go to
either receive these resources

and services or just to get
involved?

Um, do you I mean, do you have
social media, uh, I need a need

for volunteers?

And what's sort of the call to
action that you would like to

share today?

SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we do.

Uh let's see, the first one was
um how to get a hold of us.

The the website is a really
great way to to to just learn

more about us.

So just libertyhousecenter.org
is a really great um spot to go.

An interesting thing about
people who who need our services

is we actually don't do
walk-ins.

It's all referral-based in
except for the therapy

department.

That one is a, you know, you can
make a phone call and kind of

see if we have availability.

But yeah, the re we actually
have people get referred to our

medical services.

Um, our prevention services are
completely open.

Anyone can just contact us
through the website.

They can call us, um, set up
some of the trainings, get some

of the material, the resources,
that kind of thing.

Um, but yeah, we do have social
media too.

Um, Facebook, Instagram, all of
that stuff is on our website.

So follow us, learn some things
about us.

Um, we have a great newsletter
as well.

SPEAKER_00: So and so is there a
call to action that you'd like

to put out together.

SPEAKER_01: At the moment, we
are doing a fundraising

campaign.

So we are a 501c3 as well.

So we really rely on community
support in order to make sure

that our services are
consistently available, low

cost, and accessible for for the
community.

So we're running a fundraising
campaign right now called Invest

in Hope.

Um, you can go to
libertyhousecenter.org slash

hope to find that information.

Um, and that's just again, just
to kind of like build some

community around supporting
these services.

They're they're really critical
for this area.

It's a huge help to a lot of the
kids who go through those

things.

So, you know, we just want to
kind of build some some support

for that.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, great.

Do you do any sort of
fundraising events or community

outreach events where the
community can come and interact

with your staff?

SPEAKER_01: We do, yeah.

One of the things we're doing as
part of this campaign is we used

to do kind of a big spring
fundraiser and auction kind of a

thing.

And that, you know, is it was
useful.

It was good for what it was, but
it was a it was very much a you

come to us kind of a thing.

And instead, what we're doing
now is we're going, no, we're

gonna go out to you.

So we're actually, along with
the campaign, going on kind of a

tour of our entire service area.

So we've had three or sorry,
we've had two of our community

meetings so far, one in Salem
and one in Woodburn.

And our next one is gonna be
right here in Dallas.

SPEAKER_00: And when is that
going to be March 31st?

SPEAKER_01: March 31st.

SPEAKER_00: Great, good timing.

Well, Peter, thank you so much
for joining us today and sharing

all about Liberty House.

Is there anything else you'd
like to talk about that we

haven't covered?

SPEAKER_01: I mean, one of the
things that I always like to say

is just to be aware, I guess.

It's it's a bigger problem than
most people acknowledge.

Most people are aware of, you
know, they kind of think

abstractly like, oh yeah, this
is this happens.

There are nearly 300 confirmed
cases of child abuse and neglect

in Polk County alone.

Um, there's another another uh
you know 1200 or so in Marion

County.

So it's a much more widespread
issue, but that awareness is

also like this is the the flip
side of that is that we're here

to help.

We're here to make a difference
in that problem, even though

it's severe and it's out there
and it's you know something to

to think about.

There are people out there who
are also there to there to help.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, good.

Thanks for that.

Now, before we go to close out
our podcast, there's one thing

we like to ask all of our guests
this one question.

Uh, what's your favorite thing
about Dallas?

But in your case, um, maybe Polk
County as a as a whole is a

better question.

So, what's your favorite thing
about Polk County?

SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's I I
actually have kind of an answer

for both.

Okay.

Um I went to Western Oregon, so
I am totally biased towards

Monmouth.

I I love that that city.

Um, so that's the Polk County
answer.

Here in Dallas, I stop at New
Morning Bakery every time I'm

there.

They have the best cinnamon roll
I've ever had.

SPEAKER_00: Very good.

Well, thanks again to Peter for
joining us, and thank you to

everyone for tuning in today.

Uh, be sure to follow us on
YouTube, Spotify, and Apple

Podcasts.

Thanks for listening to the
Dallas Oregon podcast.

I'm Charlie Mitchell, and we'll
see you next time.