Sheriff's Office Hosts Annual Family Violence Summit

From the Clackamas Co. Sheriff's Office:

The 2016 Child Abuse and Family Violence Summit starts Tuesday, April 19 and ends Friday, April 22 at the Red Lion Hotel on the River in Portland, Oregon. For media outlets, interview opportunities are available with experts leading sessions at the summit. Interested media must contact PIO Sgt. Brian Jensen for details.

Special events at this year's Summit include:

A Wednesday, April 20 screening of "Swift Current" (84 minutes), which tells the story of former NHL hockey player Sheldon Kennedy, who was sexually abused by his junior hockey coach and has gone on to become one of the world's leading advocates for victims of child abuse. Kennedy will also give a keynote speech at the conference on Wednesday, April 20.

A Thursday, April 21 fundraiser for Camp HOPE, a camping and mentoring program provides children ages 6-15 who have been exposed to domestic and sexual violence with the opportunity to get outdoors, play and have fun. The fundraiser will feature an appearance by Camp HOPE and Family Justice Center founder Casey Gwinn, who is also delivering a keynote at the Summit on Thursday, April 21.

Other keynote speakers at this year's summit include motivational speaker and trainer Derek Clark of I Will Never Give Up and Sharon W. Cooper, MD, FAAP, a retired Air Force colonel and CEO of Developmental and Forensic Pediatric in Pennsylvania, a consulting firm that provides medical care, research, training and expert witness experience in child-maltreatment cases as well as medical care for children with disabilities.

The sheriff's office is also working to schedule interviews with experts from the conference for its Facebook Live feed. Keep an eye on the sheriff's office Facebook page for details.

The Summit was started in 2000 by Clackamas County Sheriff Craig Roberts. At that time, he was a CCSO detective working child-abuse and child-homicide investigations. He realized they weren't isolated cases; instead, we were facing a hidden epidemic of violence and abuse.

This led to the founding of the three-and-a-half-day multi-disciplinary conference designed for professionals working in the areas of investigations, interviewing, assessment, prosecution and treatment of child abuse, neglect and domestic violence.

More than 750 attendees came from across the U.S. and around the world in 2015.

The Summit is hosted by the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office Child Abuse Team and the Domestic Violence Enhanced Response Team (DVERT). The summit's goal is to educate professionals on the complex issues associated with child abuse and family violence, to broaden each professional's knowledge base in multiple areas and to increase understanding of the other agencies' roles and responsibilities.

The conference theme, "The Power of One in Collaboration with Others," continues throughout the summit as professionals learn new ways to work together to protect and make each child safe in our communities.

Further information is available through the Child Abuse Summit website.