Liberty House received notification on January 31, 2025, that it had achieved accredited status with the National Children’s Alliance, a Washington, D.C.-based professional membership organization. “This is an incredible achievement for Liberty House!” said Alison Kelley, Liberty House CEO since 2013. “Accreditation means that Liberty House, along with its local professional colleagues, has met or exceeded national requirements involving the standard of care, communication, and focus on children during investigations, all of which result in better outcomes for children and their families.”
Liberty House opened in 1999 and is the children’s advocacy center (CAC) serving Marion and Polk Counties. Liberty House offers trauma-informed, specialized pediatric medical and mental health services for children birth through age 18 referred for concerns of sexual abuse, physical abuse, neglect, trafficking, and witnessing domestic violence. Liberty House family support specialists provide crisis intervention support for non-offending parents or caregivers so the whole family has resources to support healing. Additionally, Liberty House facilitates care coordination among all professionals involved with helping a child to be safe.
Liberty House also offers trauma-focused mental health therapy for children who have suffered trauma, as well as adult survivors of childhood trauma. Kelley emphasized the positive impact of the work of Liberty House. “These are important resources that help trauma loosen its grip so children or adults don’t have to be held back by their wounds.”
“It’s all about the children,” reflected Eva Corbin, Board Chair of Liberty House. “We focus on the children and how we can make things better.” Eva leads a robust board of directors who actively work to increase support for Liberty House. “Children can heal and go on to live great lives if they have the right resources at the right time.”
According to Kelley, child abuse is thought to be widespread across the country at a very high cost to society. Research has shown that each case can have lifetime aggregated expenses of over $250,000. “That’s roughly over $300,000,000 of new costs each year in Marion and Polk Counties alone,” she mentioned. “Children and those who love them can suffer trauma from abuse and neglect, and untreated trauma can increase susceptibility to substance abuse. That can produce a downward spiral of addiction and homelessness. To solve problems like homelessness, we have to connect the dots to the childhood trauma.”
Kelley emphasized that accreditation for Liberty House also reflects the high level of dedication among our colleagues in law enforcement, the Oregon Department of Human Services, and the Marion and Polk County District Attorney’s offices. “Child abuse investigations are hard,” she noted. “We know first responders often face very sad and sometimes extremely dangerous circumstances during the course of their work. They are everyday heroes who deserve our gratitude.”
“The tragedy of all this is that child abuse is largely preventable,” Kelley explained. “That is why we launched prevention education services. We provide free trainings throughout Marion and Polk Counties to help grownups learn ways to keep their children safe.”
About Liberty House: Liberty House annually trains over 1,200 adults in child abuse prevention, cell phones and safety, and other topics. Liberty House also launched iRespect&Protect (www.irespectandprotect.com), a website offering free resources for kids, parents, teachers, and youth-serving professionals to help increase emotional resilience and protective actions to prevent harm from social media-related cyberbullying.
Liberty House is one of 24 children’s advocacy centers in Oregon. They belong to the statewide professional organization Oregon Child Abuse Solutions. Roughly 54% of Oregon CACs are accredited. There are over 961 CACs in the United States, according to the NCA website. Liberty House is the only CAC serving both Marion and Polk Counties. Liberty House has served over 16,000 children in its 25 years of operations.
