Behind the Scenes

 "It's been nearly 8 years since the name Center for Children and Families, Inc. was first mentioned to us. We were initially approached about making a video for a fundraising luncheon. CCFI was using a new fundraising model and the video was a cornerstone of this new approach. Always up for a new creative opportunity, we said "sure, we'll help" and thus opened the door for a wonderful relationship and opened our eyes to some real and sobering realities.

It would be impossible to help tell the story of CCFI without getting to know the staff and the people they serve intimately. Over the years we have gotten to know and love the people who make CCFI wonderful. These people have demonstrated amazing levels of compassion and commitment to healing and preventing the hurts that so many children and families experience in our community.

We've also heard stories that have brought us to tears and inspired us to action beyond our work on the video. We've helped revitalize the play therapy rooms and served as table captains at the luncheon and done what we can to be ambassadors for CCFI and its amazing mission.

It would also be impossible to tell the CCFI story without featuring children in the videos we've created. To fill those roles, we turned to our own kids and the kids of our friends. It's not easy to see a child that you love on the big screen accompanied by statistics of the tragedies that other children actually experience. It brings home the reality that real kids are suffering in horrible ways right here in our community. Those kids deserve to grow up like our kids: safe, nurtured and loved. How could we not give what we can to make that a reality?

Working with CCFI is life-changing for us. It inspires us to be better parents ourselves, it motivates us to take action and it makes us proud that we've partnered with such a worthwhile organization."


-Krystyn Bramlett and Leslie Wiggins Christopher
Bramlett and Associates Multimedia


A Very Special Place, produced by Bramlett and Associates Multimedia:

Community spirit on the block

‘I Love My Neighborhood’ block party expected to be biggest yet

2010 Block Party

The 11th annual block party, hosted by the Center for Children & Families, Inc. (CCFI) Neighborhood Centers program, will take place this Saturday from noon to 2 p.m., rain or shine, on Peters Street- in and around Trinity Baptist Church’s parking lot.  

“This free community event has been a decade long tradition,” said CCFI Senior Program Specialist, Jessica Hutchinson. “Having support from the community is important for Norman’s youth and every year we host the event we see more and more people coming to celebrate and create neighborhood connections.” 

Involvement for the block party is at an all-time high with more than 35 local businesses and organizations participating and hosting activities and booths for all ages. Kids will be able to bounce from moonwalks to slides, make crafts, have their faces painted, enjoy free food, treats, and live music from the Katie Tracy Band.  The Wilson Elementary and Trinity Baptist Childrens’ Choir will also perform. There will also be an opportunity to win more than a dozen gift certificates and other prizes.


This event is free and open to all residents, for more information go to www.ccfinorman.org/blockparty or call (405) 364-1420.

'I Love My Neighborhood' block party made possible by:
CCFI’s Neighborhood Centers Program, Wilson Elementary School, Trinity Baptist Church, Norman Regional Hospital, Tinker Federal Credit Union, Moore Norman Technology Center, Journey Church, Chick-fil-A of Norman, Sonic on Alameda, Maggie Moo’s, Hiland Dairy, Sonder Music & Art, Pink Elephant Café, Downtown Fitness, Forward Foods, Native Roots Market, YMCA of Cleveland County, Rainbow Feet, Success by Six, Norman Emergency Services, Wilson Elementary Parent Teacher Association, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Cleveland County, IBC, Norman Parks and Recreation Department, Johnson Controls, Norman Exchange Club, and other community friends.

Katie Fitzgerald gets to see program's impact on families

 Article from the Norman Transcript- Although most don’t realize it at the time, some of the abused and neglected children who walk through the welcoming doors at Norman’s Center for Children and Families Inc. already have a connection with center director Katie Fitzgerald.

Katie at Hands & Hearts Luncheon

As a 7-year-old growing up in Michigan, Fitzgerald was molested at a girlfriend’s house by the friend’s father. She knew at the time that something was very wrong but didn’t know how to verbalize her feelings.

“I was crying and upset and my mom asked me all the right questions and I still couldn’t tell her,” Fitzgerald recalls. “Children can’t easily talk about what happens to them.”

Through play therapy, counseling and other services, the healing can begin. “I know that there’s a place for kids here. I didn’t have that,” says Fitzgerald, director for nearly 18 months.

She shared her story publicly at last year’s CCFI fundraising luncheon. Only through dialogue and education will we understand abuse and neglect can happen in all families. Later on, Fitzgerald and her friends discovered there were several victims. Even as close friends, they didn’t confide in each other.

“We just need to get more comfortable talking about it,” she said.

An Oklahoman for about six years, Fitzgerald came to the center, founded in 1969 as Juvenile Services Inc., after working at OU’s Women in Leadership program and for the Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy. In Michigan, she worked for the Kellogg Foundation and with the United Way. Much of her work focused on vulnerable youth and families.

“But everything I’ve ever done never felt complete until I came here. I can see kids and families here that we are having an impact on,” she said. “It’s an incredible opportunity for me.”

Emily and Pam Clinton, Katie.

She manages about 25 full and part-time employees and a $1.2 million budget. Funding comes from state agency contracts, individual and corporate donor partners and Norman’s United Way campaign.

Programs, besides healing child abuse and neglect, include support and education for parents, divorce visitation arbitration, parents assistance, teen parenting, neighborhood centers and an emergency diaper and formula closet. Last year, they handed out 32,000 diapers.

The Neighborhood Centers program cares for and provides safe, after school, evening and weekend activities for about 50 kids a day at Longfellow and Irving Middle Schools and Kennedy and Wilson elementaries. They’ll host an “I love my neighborhood” block party at Wilson from noon to 2 p.m. Saturday.

CCFI, along with Bethesda Alternative and Mary Abbott Children’s House, will mark April as child abuse prevention month with a variety of activities. Fitzgerald encourages people to attend the Children Front & Center Tours at the 7,500-square-foot center, located in the former Veterans Center complex on the Griffin Hospital campus, to see the mission in action. Tour dates and opportunities can be found here.

They’ll host legislators for a tour this week. Lawmakers will be making funding decisions that impact all who work with families and children. The numbers of investigated cases of abuse are down significantly but only due to a policy shift by the Department of Human Services.

Cleveland County claimed about 350 of the state’s 12,000 plus confirmed cases of abuse and neglect last year. A budget cutting proposal to close the health department’s office of child abuse prevention troubles Fitzgerald. In rough economic times, family stress tends to increase. Rural areas don’t always have safe places like CCFI, Bethesda or Abbott House.

“All around the state, these kids and their families need so much. We’re able to do what we can but further reducing these services right now is not the answer,” Fitzgerald said. “In most communities, there literally is nothing else for them.”

The Blue Ribbon

A Symbol of Awareness for Child Abuse Prevention Month

During April you may see people wearing a looped blue ribbon or a blue ribbon pin in observance of Child Abuse Prevention Month, and you may wonder what the significance of the blue ribbon is. In fact, there is deep meaning behind what has become a nationally recognized symbol for child abuse prevention.

In the spring of 1989, a grandmother named Bonnie Finney took a stand against child abuse in Norfolk, Va. She tied a blue ribbon on the antenna of her minivan in remembrance of her late grandson and as a signal to her community that child abuse was a devastating social plague.

Her grandson, Michael Wayne "Bubba" Dickenson, and his siblings had lived in an at-risk, abusive home environment. Despite Finney's efforts to intervene on behalf of her grandchildren, the boyfriend of the children's mother murdered 3-year-old Bubba. His body was found, bound, beaten, and bruised, in a weighted toolbox at the bottom of a canal.

Finney said she was thinking about all the bruises she had seen on her grandchildren and decided to tie a blue ribbon on her van. She said she intended to never forget the battered, bruised bodies of her grandchildren and used the color blue as a reminder to fight for protection of children.

Finney's personal campaign to raise public awareness was joined by a Norfolk parent assistance program and a local radio station. Soon, stores, businesses, schools, churches, civic organizations, and social service agencies were participating in the campaign and thousands of blue ribbons were displayed in the name of child abuse prevention. The spirit of her blue ribbon grew and inspired a statewide community-based effort to prevent child abuse in every town, every community and every city and county.

Click here to see CCFI's Blue Ribbon for Kids Photo Album

Since then, Bonnie Finney's simple act of education and remembrance has inspired a nationwide movement and led states throughout the country to participate in the campaign by designating the month of April each year Child Abuse Prevention Month.

Promote healthy children and strong families in our community and wear a blue ribbon or build a blue ribbon tree in honor of Child Abuse Prevention Month!

Make the ribbons count- trees must be registered and completed by April 5th and pictures of the trees will be displayed at the state capitol on April 12th during Child Abuse Prevention Day. Be sure you post your tree on the CCFI facebook page @ CCFInorman! Get started today at www.exchangeclubofnorman.org/.