The Incredibly Valuable Volunteers of Children’s Center

[00:00:00] Speaker A: A note to our listeners. This episode contains discussions about suicide.

[00:00:12] Speaker B: From Children’s center in Vancouver, Washington. This is Hope on Healing. I’m Matthew Bute, executive Director of Children’s center and your host.

We make this podcast in order to bring you hopeful stories and to introduce you to people who inspire hope.

They’ve inspired a lot of hope in me and among people here at Children’s Centre, and I hope you feel the same. We are very proud of the work we do at Children’s Centre and the help we are able to provide to children, adolescents and their families, from our wonderful therapists, to administrative staff, to everyone who works here. It takes a lot to run this place, but none of it would be possible without the many hours of hard work put in by by an amazing force of volunteers and donors.

People working selflessly outside their own busy lives and responsibilities as part of our mission to serve all of our clients and provide outstanding care.

We can never say thank you enough to our supporters, but we did want to take some time here on Hope and Healing to put a spotlight on the work they do because it really is as impressive as it is essential.

On this episode, we take some time out to talk with two of our many, many volunteers, Denise Burgoyne and Brian Thompson.

[00:01:30] Speaker A: Denise Burgoyne. Hello, Denise.

[00:01:32] Speaker C: Hello. How are you?

[00:01:34] Speaker A: Well, I’m well, Denise. I’m here with my English cup of tea. How about you? What are you drinking today?

[00:01:39] Speaker C: Today I am drinking lemon ginger.

[00:01:41] Speaker A: Hello, Brian Thompson. Thank you for being with us today.

[00:01:44] Speaker D: Glad to be here.

[00:01:44] Speaker A: What are you drinking this afternoon?

[00:01:46] Speaker D: Well, it’s a beautiful day in the Northwest. It’s almost like summer. So I’ve got a diet 7 up on tap here today.

[00:01:52] Speaker A: So if you could each tell us a little bit about yourselves and for how long you’ve been connected and involved in the work of Children’s Center. Denise, would you like to start us off?

[00:02:03] Speaker C: I was introduced to Children’s center through Matthew. He came to my husband’s business when he was in the role of development director and shared with us the vision of Children’s Center.

We’ve lived in Clark county for almost 30 years, and to be quite honest, we had never heard of the work that was being done there.

And when Matthew came in and shared what was going on literally half a mile down the street from the office we were in, it really tugged at my heart as mental health and the welfare of children have always been a personal passion of mine. And I just immediately felt connected to Matthew and to the work of the Children’s Center. And, and quickly ascertained, how can I be a volunteer here? What can I do to move this organization forward and support it and get information out to the community of the incredible work that’s being done and the necessary work that was being done. And if memory serves, that was seven years ago.

And then about a year later, after I’d done some work at the center and some volunteer work, then Matthew asked me to consider coming onto the Board of Directors. And I have been since then.

[00:03:26] Speaker A: Thank you, Denise. And we appreciate so much your work here and involvement. How about you, Brian? Can you tell us a little about how you got involved and for how long?

[00:03:36] Speaker D: Well, many years ago, Matthew was the principal at my daughter’s high school and he was instrumental in helping her through a really difficult time.

After that, he had left the school and became one of the directors at the Children’s Center. And he asked me to come and my wife to come to a banquet, the first fundraiser that he was in charge of. We went, watched a video about the Children’s center and that was it. I was hooked. I realized how important children’s mental health is. And I went to Matthew that I think it was the same night it might have been the next day, and I said, I’m in. Let me know what you need.

[00:04:10] Speaker A: What are the ways in which you both get involved and contribute to the success here?

[00:04:18] Speaker D: Well, I’d like to. You know, I’m not a therapist, so that’s probably what we need the most of at the Children’s Center. But I try to volunteer and do as much as I can. I’ve worked on the landscaping on the building, I’ve sat on a lot of committees, helped fundraise, I’ve tried to direct people, donors to the Children’s Center.

So any way I can find where we can either cut costs or raise more money, because I think that’s really the best way I can affect this situation. So that’s what I strive towards.

[00:04:47] Speaker A: Thank you. And how about you, Denise?

[00:04:50] Speaker C: My role has been probably more in the administrative role just in terms of serving on the board of Directors and then also being on committees for different fundraising activities and, and taking pretty much any opportunity I can to talk to anybody in the community, my friends, family, of course, but people that I meet on a day to day basis just to talk to them about Children’s center and try to find ways to network Children’s center with other organizations in Vancouver and with different people within Vancouver and the general Clark county area.

But that would be probably the main contribution I’ve done. And financial also, but primarily through my time.

[00:05:34] Speaker A: Both of you mentioned that you, you share the work of Children’s center with others.

So I’m assuming that’s family, friends, work colleagues. What’s the reaction of those people when you talk about that you’re involved in a mental health agency?

[00:05:49] Speaker C: I’ve had varied response.

Mental health has been a big part of my my entire life. Since I was a young girl, I’ve had relatives who have been therapists. And so even in my own growing up household there was a lot of talk about issues around anxiety and depression. So it was never a taboo subject and it was never something that was avoided.

And so when I now have children that are their twins, they’re 21 years old, it’s always been a big part of my conversations with them and, and of course with their dad and us as a family unit and how we’re dealing with things on a day to day basis. So for me it seems very natural to talk about.

Seems no different than I sprained my ankle, I hurt my wrist. It’s just a very natural conversation for me to have and to be comfortable with. And so I found as I approach different people, there is a varied response. Some people think it’s unnecessary, some people think medication is unneeded with children if prescribed appropriately. And some people dive into it and are very relieved to know that there are organizations like Children’s Center.

I was a stay at home mom and so most of my conversations were with other mothers at the playground talking about what’s going on with their kids.

It’s been a real varied response, not towards Children’s center per se, but, but towards the idea and the issue of mental health.

I think since COVID and the ramifications of COVID on children, I think now there’s a real big awakening that this isn’t an idea, that mental health isn’t a weakness, that it is a part of life and it needs to be faced and it needs to be talked about and it doesn’t need to be filled with shame and embarrassment that it is an everyday part of our lives and the more we are aware of it and communicate about it, the stronger we’re going to be in our families and in our communities.

I’m sad that the conversation has had to shift and there’s been so much more awareness towards mental health.

But I’m also glad to know people are more open to talking about what it is, what it means and how are different ways to deal with it and the importance of early intervention. The Sooner we can be working with people, kiddos, especially in helping them reframe what’s happening in their lives, the quicker they can find healing and the stronger they’re going to be in their community moving forward.

[00:08:26] Speaker A: You mentioned that there’s been an increased openness to discussion around this. Why is that? What do you, in your experience, why are people a bit more comfortable talking about it now than they were perhaps before?

[00:08:38] Speaker C: I’m not really sure that there’s one specific reason. I think part of it is that there’s a lot more information on mainstream media.

There’s a lot more information on Instagram. I think kids are talking to each other more and addressing, hey, you know, I, I feel really sad or I feel really anxious.

And I think that seeing some of the, the effects of these kids getting into a real high stress situation where they start making choices that are self harming, you kind of have a choice. You can either ignore it and hope it’s going to go away or you can look for ways that there can be healing. And I think a lot of it has to do with more mainstream media. Talking about it is probably the easier way to identify it. And I think also well known people addressing it and talking about it and normalizing it and realizing that this is kind of a part of our lives now. And just seeing kiddos struggle that didn’t struggle before, you know, before the isolation period that they did really well before that socializing. And now they’re having a hard time making and keeping friends and communicating and managing their feelings.

It’s kind of in everybody’s face a little bit more. You can’t just pretend it’s not there, that your kid’s just having a bad day or you know, a grouchy teenager. Like maybe there’s something else going on that needs to be looked at.

[00:10:09] Speaker A: Yeah, certainly been a real positive shift in that more people are seeking help earlier now than perhaps they once did because there’s more openness.

But still, based on what you’ve seen, we’ve still got some work to do for sure where there are some people saying kind of putting the hand up, let’s not talk about it anymore.

[00:10:27] Speaker C: Absolutely.

[00:10:29] Speaker D: Well, I think I grew up with a little different experience than Denise. I grew up in a small town in the middle of Oregon and boy, you did not talk, talk about mental health back then.

I think I first got aware of it when shortly after college I lost two good friends to suicide and didn’t know each other. But it was just one of those things. One of the Age, I think, in people’s lives, where mental health starts catching up. And so that was when I first became aware of how important it was. We talked about, if we had known, we would have reached out, that type of thing. We tried to get through the embarrassment, but back then, it was pull yourself up by your bootstraps.

So I think now in this era, like Denise said, it’s like a twisted ankle or a broken arm. It’s just something that people need to acknowledge. And I think through the process we have had, when I have talked about children’s center in the community, the thing that shocks me the most is how few people are aware of it when everybody should be aware of it. And so I think, you know, we have been able to generate some support just out of awareness. But I think that’s something that when you’re a nonprofit, it is hard to find the dollars when you’re spending it on children’s mental health to get out and advertise. And that’s so word of mouth is something that we rely on.

So I really try to push that out in the community. I think I get a really favorable response. I get a favorable response to the fact that I’m volunteering, and I get a favorable response for what the children’s center does. So. So from that standpoint, it’s just a matter of making people aware, and I think that’s been one of my missions as well.

[00:12:06] Speaker A: Brian, how do you get a favorable response? And I know you do this, you invite people to our fundraisers and you get people involved.

How do you take it from a favorable response to, I’m going to invest my time or my money into it?

How do you make that happen?

[00:12:22] Speaker D: Well, I think realistically, I mean, we have found out that there’s a lot of people that want to volunteer Now.

A lot of people ask to volunteer, and if we find the right project, we can get people in there. But I think, you know, for the most part, we have had a pretty good response for people wanting to help out. It always seems like we have plenty of help.

Maybe not on every project, but on most of them, as far as the donating goes, I think really just the guilt that I’ve invited you to my banquet, so I expect you to have a little return on investment here. Here’s a nice lunch. You need to cut a check.

But no, for the most part, I think people are willing to.

Fundraising is a hard deal, as you know. And so it’s a matter of really just trying to present something that people believe in.

And I think it’s really easy to get behind the Children’s Center.

[00:13:12] Speaker C: I find that once people have come to the luncheon or I talk to people about what’s happening or what we’re doing, it’s a pretty easy segue. I think most of the people in my personal life are parents and you know, parents that have a passion for their children’s well being. And so once there’s a level of understanding of what’s happening and like Brian said, bringing somebody to the events, it really kind of takes, takes its own course because I don’t know how that you could sit there and listen to what’s happening in these stories.

Both the, the challenging stories and the, the joyful success stories and not being moved to give. I think we’re for the most part in a very philanthropic community. Clark county is very interested in taking care of its community.

We’ve seen that in other organizations that we’re involved with.

And I think once people get to know about Children’s center, it’s, it’s a pretty easy transition into what can we do? How can we give financial support or help with some of the projects like what Brian has going on with the landscaping or a project like heavy helpers or donating food or donating clothing or you know, Thanksgiving time, Christmas time, different ways. Can we bless a family, can we adopt a family?

I think it’s a pretty natural segue once children’s center is introduced and once children’s center, especially if they come to a luncheon and get a better sense or come to the facilities, then they get a really good sense too of exactly what’s happening and what’s happening on a day to day basis and what’s needed.

[00:15:00] Speaker A: You listed a number of the ways that people can get involved. You mentioned heavy helpers. I imagine there are folks listening to this right now wondering what is going on at children’s center that they have heavy helpers. Can you talk a little about what they are?

[00:15:14] Speaker C: So what a heavy helper is? It’s a basically a big regular stuffed animal that you buy in, in any store. And the volunteers open up the stuffing, take out some of the stuffing and put in as a five pound, depends.

[00:15:28] Speaker A: On the size of the bear and how, how old the kid might be that we’re, we’re getting this too.

[00:15:35] Speaker C: So they’ll put in a queer, you know, like a package of a aquarium rocks, put it in the bear, restuff them and sew them back up.

And I mentioned the time that I met Matthew, he brought a Heavy helper to the meeting that I was in.

And one of the people that worked there in my husband’s office grabbed that heavy helper and just plopped that bear right on her lap. And immediately there’s just a. There’s just a sensory event that happens when you’re holding something heavier. It’s like if you have a. A weighted blanket or if you go to the dentist office and they. They put the. The barrier on you, there’s something it does to your nervous system, and it kind of slows it down and it kind of helps you center. And so when the children come in to children’s center, they can take a heavy helper. And so if they’re not with their therapist or they’re somewhere where they don’t feel safe, or they’re just having a hard time, or they’re in their room and they’re feeling alone, it acts as an anchor for that kiddo to kind of center themselves a little bit, maybe slow down their breathing a little bit, maybe get the blood flowing a little bit more, and so that they can calm their nervous system down.

[00:16:46] Speaker A: Thanks for that description, Denise. And I think that heavy helper is still in your husband’s office.

[00:16:51] Speaker C: It is indeed, seven years later. It sits on the receptionist desk. And we have a little sign here that it’s, you know, with regards to children’s center. And my husband and the other people work in his office are very happy to point out what the heavy helper is, what children’s center does, and because it is a curious thing to walk into to a regular office. And there’s a stuffed animal, a very large stuffed animal just kind of perched on the. Perched on the desk. And so it’s a natural segue to talk to people about something that’s so.

It’s just so tangible. It isn’t the mystery of mental health. It’s just a very tangible.

This is going to help the kiddo right now. Like, this is an immediate thing that they can take, they can have with them and help them to keep safe or help them to feel. To feel safe and to feel that they’ve got a partner in what they’re. What they’re going through.

[00:17:48] Speaker A: Brian, what’s. What’s been the most fun about being involved?

We deal with difficult subjects here, but that doesn’t mean to say that the work and the support can’t also be positive and enjoyable at times.

[00:18:04] Speaker D: Well, I think Denise brought this up when we were talking about it, but she reminded me of something that, when she was talking about how when we have our luncheons, our fundraisers, that the work speaks for itself.

A couple years ago, we wanted to do a landscaping project. A friend of mine approached me and said, you know what?

We should get a lot of our college friends together and do something meaningful. And he asked me about the children’s center, and I explained it, what we do. And he already knew I was volunteering. And he said, that’s a great project. What can we do? And so we talked about the landscaping. And I said, you know, obviously, if anybody’s a therapist, that would be great, but instead, you know, we can help offset their cost.

What I did at that point you were saying, how do you get people involved? Is I sent out an email to several people. It was probably 30 or 40 people at least. And we were talking about the project we were going to do on the Saturday we were going to do it. And what I included was, is they said, this is the children’s center. They work on children’s mental health in Clark County. We’re getting a big spillover from Portland because of the cost of housing in Portland at that time was spilling into Vancouver and pushing people that were socioeconomically disadvantaged across the river.

But in that email, I included. I’ll try to say this without choking up, which is the letter from. That was written that we had used, that talked about a girl written by her brother, that his sister was no longer his sister because she was not the same person. And it was because somebody in their family had been molesting her.

And he talked about how the Children’s center got her back to where now he sees her laughing and playing with her friends. She’s not withdrawn. I sent that letter out.

I had 15 people show up to help out that day. It was a hot day. These guys are all older. Not one of them quit. They worked for three, four hours solid.

I had at least two or three of them come up and said, thank you for that letter. I get it.

I get exactly what you’re doing.

And so that was pretty impactful. I think it’s something that resonated with them, and it’s something that we enjoyed doing together as a group of friends because it gave us a chance to get together. We’d all gone to University of Oregon together, and so we didn’t always have enough opportunities to get together.

We are still doing stuff to this day, and this has been a big one. So we’re also talking about what we can do again for the children’s center.

[00:20:34] Speaker A: That was a hot day, Brian. And you and your friends, those who so kindly and generously gave of time and energy and resources that it transformed our campus and things that, yes, we, we, we. We cannot always afford to pay those extra pieces. And that’s what you and your. Your friends brought to us, was to help enhance the place in which we work and in which our families come for support. And it sends a huge, huge message to them that people in the community care about them. They may not ever see you. You may not know that. You won’t know their names. But you send, you and your friends and all those that get involved in our work send that message that kids are the struggling, are cared for, and that we have got them. And so grateful for what you both do with that.

Denise, how about you? You’ve been involved in so many ways. What have been. Some of the ways of perhaps enjoyable might be too strong. Maybe it’s more question of what’s been most meaningful for you in the years that you’ve participated in things here.

[00:21:37] Speaker C: Well, this is something that’s probably a little bit different, but the year, the first year that there was Covid and we wanted to do a Christmas party for the staff, and of course, everybody was working remote and nobody was in the clinic.

So how do we do this? How. How do we take care of those that are taking care of the children?

And so another board member, myself. You were there, Matthew. And was it just the three of us maybe?

[00:22:17] Speaker A: Yep, this three.

[00:22:18] Speaker C: And we were outside, and it was thankfully a very clear December day and very, very chilly. But we had gifts and we had hot coffee, I think, and some snacks, and the therapist would. Would drive and we stood outside the. The building, on the. The sidewalk there, outside the building, in front of the building, and the staff would come through. And it was really. Even though I was on the board, I had been for a couple of years, it was the first time where I. I really had, as a board member and a member of our community, the opportunity to personally meet and thank the people that were absolutely meeting the needs of children.

At the height of COVID when there was so much isolation. And as a board member, again, you were talking about how are you involved at Children’s center, there was a chunk of years where you felt very isolated. We’re doing meetings through zoom, like there really was no connection.

And to be able to thank these therapists for their hard work, that was a real blessing for me. An opportunity for me to just try to connect with people who are doing the hard work every single day, day in and day out.

And So I would say that. And then, you know, just different volunteering opportunities with separating food and making food bags for. For families in the. In the.

That are part of Children’s center. Kind of a hands. Hands on. I like, kind of like Brian.

I don’t mind the thinking part, but it’s really great to just get in there and actually do something like actually prepare or organize or, or be a part of a team of people working to bless the kids and the staff and the. And the therapists at Children’s Center.

[00:24:18] Speaker A: You mentioned that drive through that three of us were there and gifts were given to staff. And I tear up a little bit as I hear that because it really was such a special thing for staff to. To know that there are people that, that care, that watch them. And this was of course, extremely difficult time. And those things that you and Brian and other board members and supporters do for our staff today continues to send that same message that they are not alone in their work. And it is extremely moving. And I think we should point out that our listeners could perhaps try and get a picture of this or we could put it on the website. Denise, how did you dress when you were giving out those gifts? I think it’s important for that to be noted, the lengths of which are.

[00:25:05] Speaker C: I don’t think that there’s any photographic evidence, Matthew.

[00:25:10] Speaker A: Yes, there is.

[00:25:11] Speaker C: There is, yes. Oh, well, then I may as well admit I dressed up as Buddy the Elf.

[00:25:18] Speaker A: It was great.

Put a smile on everyone. But they.

[00:25:21] Speaker C: And then I wore the costume the rest of the day visiting, saying hello to various friends and also doing a little grocery shop with my mask on.

[00:25:32] Speaker A: Of course, you have both been. And not asking for details here, but we can speak in general terms. You’ve both been open about mental health issues in family, like most families, many families, if it’s not our own, it’s someone else’s that we probably know.

How’s that been for you and how does that inform also your involvement?

[00:25:59] Speaker D: Well, I’ll just start out with. And this is not a secret. And she’s pretty good about sharing. But as you know, my daughter who was at your school suffered from an eating disorder and she had both bulimia and anorexia.

We had to get her into a specialty clinic or were going to lose her. She was really struggling at that time and having a lot of health issues. So that was the first part that was a real eye opener for me. That was before the Children’s center and during that process they put you in a week of family therapy.

Which was really eye opening. And you start understanding, you know, the impact you have on not only your children, but other people and how that interacts with how they feel. And sometimes you do things you don’t mean to, but it impacts another person and it makes you a little bit more mindful.

In addition, I’ve got another child that struggles with some issues, and he has been a real handful. But with that in mind, he’s also very open about his issues. And so we continue to work on it together. And it is something that it just tells you, I guess I feel very fortunate because we have had the money to get really good help, and I don’t. Not every family has that opportunity, and that’s where the children’s center comes in.

Being a nonprofit, being that they try to never turn anybody away, I think that’s huge for our community because there’s so many kids that need help. And really, I’ll be honest, I sit in the lobby and I watch the kids come in, and that really cements what you’re doing because you watch them and you can see the ones that are really struggling and you know, they’re there to get help. And, you know, it’s probably a relief to the parents because there’s nothing worse than when you’re a parent, you don’t feel like you can help your child.

And I think that is just a huge part of the children’s center and it’s a huge part for the families in the community.

[00:27:55] Speaker A: How is your daughter doing?

[00:27:58] Speaker D: She’s doing really well. I, you know, I think she still struggles with. Sometimes when the stress hits, she struggles with her eating habits, but she’s done so much better. And I think the thing, the main tool is, is I can reach out. I know people will support me. I know that if this is a problem, my parents are there for me.

So she’s got two kids of her own now, and she’s doing really well. And so I think that, you know, from that standpoint, I feel like that’s a success story that she has come so far in her life life. And, and that’s a big deal. So I think that’s. That’s what you want to see as a parent.

[00:28:35] Speaker A: Yeah, that’s so outstanding for you, for her whole family coming together and appreciate you. You sharing that.

[00:28:45] Speaker C: I would just say certainly in my family, I have seen struggles that my kids have had, that I’ve had, that my husband has had. And we’ve all, we’ve all worked towards healing.

And at this point in our life, After a lot of therapy and help and healing, there’s definitely growth markers that I didn’t think were possible.

I would say, even though I was referencing before how mental health was definitely discussed when I was a kid, I don’t think there was really an awareness that mental health was affecting children.

So I want to make that distinction. The, the idea was mental health only happened to adults. Mental health illness or, or issues happened when you were an adult.

And so I can look back when I was a child and going through, you know, my, you know, household, family issues, I can see where I started to develop anxiety, some OCD issues that I wish that I had had an opportunity to talk to somebody to help me understand what was happening and how was I managing the stress in this way to try to settle myself down. I can look now as an adult and look back and think you really found some strategies, but they were kind of on your own to help you manage your anxiety.

But if there had been a greater awareness, I think that yet children aren’t just being grouchy or difficult because that’s how you were labeled. If a child was, say, in their teen years and they were dealing with depression, there wasn’t a lot of grace for that. That was a choice. You need to knock it off, you know, whatever it is. But the understanding was more that mental health illness happened in adult years, not as a child.

And I think that that’s the shift with my generation is that it’s affecting children and not just children that are in a high stress home. I think there’s a general misunderstanding that a child is only going to develop anxiety or depression if they’re in a dysfunctional home.

Unfortunately, there are so many things happening in the world around children and things that are, they’re being influenced by and subjected to and made aware of without their, you know, consent necessarily, that this does draw up different issues and feelings, that even if they’re in a stable home, a functional home, that they can still deal with anxiety and depression. And that stigma, I think, needs to be removed, that they have to only if they come from a difficult home, but they’d be dealing with mental illness. It’s just not true. There’s just too many outside factors.

[00:31:45] Speaker A: Yeah, we’ve still got some way to go to, for folks necessarily to remember that mental illness does not discriminate, that it can affect anyone and everyone. And unfortunately, we’ve seen more and more kids struggle and struggle with more and more serious things.

[00:32:01] Speaker D: To piggyback on what Denise said, I think the thing that has Been really concerning to me is. And I’ve dealt with this with one of my kids and but I’ve seen it across the board is that our schools are still not prepared to handle kids that are struggling.

Some teachers are more aware and do a better job than others. Some teachers, I think really are just. They think it’s an unruly child versus this is a kid that’s really struggling with mental health issues. And so they treat it as an unruly child when that’s not what you have and that’s not how you treat the issue.

So I appreciate the fact that. I know that the children’s center puts a lot of therapists into schools. I think that’s a big benefit for our community. And I think really with what’s going on, like Denise said, there’s a lot of influences on our kids now that probably we didn’t have when we were in school.

But the truth is it’s better. Awareness is getting better, things are changing and we need the school systems to change with it.

So I’m hopeful that that will occur one of these days where we have a little bit more success in the schools.

[00:33:06] Speaker A: Yeah, that access to treatment in schools has always been high value for us and we really see it making a difference when students can access therapists on the side of schools and committed to continuing to do that and growing that.

As you reflect on your involvement, your work with children, centers, part of the community, children’s center, community, has it changed your life in any way? That too much of a stretch to ask such a question?

[00:33:36] Speaker D: Well, if you’re referring to me, yeah, it’s changed my life. I mean, it’s.

I guess it’s a combination of having to deal with my own stuff at home and understanding how important important it is for the community. And the one thing that, and I’ll get on my soapbox here really quickly is that when you talk about, and this is across the board with my friends, etc, when we talk about what’s going on in our society today, when we talk about gun violence, gun violence in our schools, homelessness or unhoused individuals, drug use on the streets, all that ties back to military mental health. And I think, Matthew, one time you shared with me, and I’ve heard this before, which is the time to help people is when they’re kids. That’s when they’re going to learn the most. They’re the most malleable and the most open to change.

By the time you get to be into your adult years, it’s a lot More of a struggle.

So I am also, I guess when we talk about the schools not being prepared, I kind of feel like our government could be more prepared and spending more money on mental health across the board, but especially among the children, because that’s when we’re going to get our best biggest success and our best rate of return.

So I just think people are missing when we talk about the things that everybody’s talking about now that are so important in our communities.

We’re missing that the component which is we need to invest in mental health in this country. It’s something that we’re really struggling with. And I cannot believe that that is not on the topic of everybody’s mind. And of course it’s not a topic in our government that should be really pushed, seems to be pushed aside for other things in my mind that are a lot less important.

[00:35:16] Speaker C: I would say this the same with what Brian’s saying, but just also having the opportunity to have a bit of a solution again. Before I was made aware of Children’s Center, I thought that if you wanted to get mental health care, the only option is to go in this direction. You go to your doctor, doctor does the referral and on and on. I didn’t know there’s a place where children could have direct access from school to the Children’s Center.

And so for me, what it’s changed in my life is just a much greater and much heightened awareness to what the needs are in our community and what the needs are amongst children.

And the urgency of getting these needs met.

Timeliness is everything, especially a child in crisis. And so to have an opportunity or someplace for the family to go, not just the child, but the family unit too, to be able to work with a therapist, that’s critical. These things aren’t going to just take care of themselves or get better over time necessarily. There needs to be a level of intervention, especially in a high stress situation with the kiddo who’s self harming and is scared and feels very much alone. And that’s where there’s an opportunity to say, hey, here’s an option. Children’s center is an option for you. But I think just the heightened awareness, even more than I really realized when I first heard of Children’s center, just to really be aware of what’s happening in our community, it’s startling.

And there’s no option but to move forward and to promote something like Children’s center and get the funds, funding in that’s needed so that we can continue to meet the needs of our Community.

[00:37:13] Speaker A: You both mentioned funding, which of course is important.

Imagine there’s someone listening to this now.

What would you say in a sentence or two they’re thinking about maybe they want to support an organization like ours or us. What in a sentence or two might you say to them to help encourage them to follow through with such an inclination?

[00:37:36] Speaker D: That’s a really good question, because I think if I had an answer to that, I would.

We’d be having a lot more money flowing in at the this point. But I think really it just goes back to what I said about the things that are bothering our communities right now. And if you want to see a change, then you have to be part of that change because this is something that’s woefully. Underfunded. Children’s mental health really needs a lot of more support. It needs a lot more support from community. It’s not just, you know, you can talk about it just being one family’s problem, but it’s really everybody’s problem because this stuff just stretches into the community over the years. So that wasn’t a couple sentences, but that’s how I feel.

[00:38:15] Speaker A: They’re just longer sentences. That’s okay.

[00:38:18] Speaker C: They’re just run ons. It’s fine. If somebody sees what the needs are, for example, at a luncheon, they see what the needs are.

I think it’s a pretty easy segue to say, what are you prepared to do?

Not just for the children that are dealing with issues right now at Children’s center, but as Brian mentioned, this is a community issue.

Mental health is a community issue.

Drug use, abuse, all of these issues, there’s often a tie to mental health. And so if we can start working with kids when they’re younger, that’s going to give us the opportunity to change the course of our society and to change the face of our community.

And I, for me, I just. It would confuse me as to why somebody wouldn’t contribute.

I just think, well, why wouldn’t you? Like, you love your kids, you love where you live, and you know, if you’re in a position where you can help, you need to help.

[00:39:27] Speaker A: Denise, thank you so much for joining us today. I’m so grateful for all you do to help help make Children’s Center a success.

[00:39:34] Speaker C: Thank you for having me on.

[00:39:36] Speaker A: Brian, thank you also for joining us. So grateful for your time today and for the many ways in which you help Children’s Centre’s work and mission.

[00:39:45] Speaker D: Thanks for having me. I appreciate you allowing me to share.

[00:39:49] Speaker B: Thank you again to Denise and Brian. If you would like to volunteer with Children’s Centre, we would love to have you. Just go on our website thechildrenscentre.com look under the Get Involved tab and I encourage you to spend some time on that site. Look around at all the great things happening at Children’s Center. Again, thechildrenscenter.org Hope and Healing was produced by Jenny Hoheisel and John Moe. Music by concert rock violinist Erin Meyer.

This podcast is presented by Children’s center in Vancouver, Washington.

Children’s Centre’s mission is to serve children, youth and families through comprehensive community based mental health services.

A reminder, as we mention on every episode we make, the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline can be reached in the United States by calling or texting 988. It’s free and it’s available 24.

[00:40:45] Speaker A: 7.

[00:40:46] Speaker B: I’m Matthew Butte and thank you for listening.

[00:40:49] Speaker D: Sa.