Last week, the Bountiful Breakfast Exchange Club heard reports from both organizations and donated $600 to each.
Sharon Anderson, executive director of the Family Connection Center told Exchangites that the number of verified cases of child abuse in Davis County has doubled in the past three years and is now up to about 2,000.
While some of the increased number may be attributed to better reporting and awareness of the problem, the major reason Anderson said is that "People are under so much pressure they take their feelings out on the children."
Anderson told the club members about the governor's new cabinet on Children and Families spearheaded by Davis County's own Rep. Paul Ray, which will work to cut the number of child abuse cases in the state.
Anderson said the most recent research shows that many of today's societal ills, including child abuse, can be related to smoking, drug abuse, teen pregnancy and domestic abuse.
She said that at birth a baby has only 25 percent of its brain connections. The rest of the connections are made in the first three years of life. "We know what makes that happen. Nurturing, love and being cared for, not noise, distractions and violence.
She said in Utah we spend $800 million yearly fixing dysfunctional people, and a small fraction of that on prevention. "We need to change what we're doing."
Bonita Lunt, business manager of Safe Harbor, said the numbers of women and children served at the shelter also keeps increasing.
Last year, the shelter received 2,264 crisis calls and were able to give shelter to 838 clients.
She said when the Kaysville shelter was built nine-and-a-half years ago, they sometimes had an empty room, but now there's never an empty room and the facility has more clients than a similar facility in Ogden.
She said some women come to the shelter with only the clothes on their back, while others have grabbed everything they think they could need before leaving. Most of the women served have between two and four kids.
In Utah, the women and their kids can stay at a shelter 30 days, but the average time is 10-12 days, Lunt said. The women and their children may go into transitional housing or go to live with family or elsewhere.
The women are required to go through counseling and have to share in chores and cooking while at the shelter.
Safe Harbor also provides outreach services, because even after a woman has left the facility, "they still need education and support," Lunt said.
The shelter also has 10 transitional apartments for women and their children, and plans are in the works for a new administrative building.
Last year, the shelter's expenses were more than $600,000, and donations were more than $60,000. Lunt said they appreciate every penny because grants often only pay for case work, not the groceries and other essentials they must provide the clients.
Plans are already underway for the shelter's major fund raiser, Evergreens, scheduled Nov. 12-13 at the Davis Conference Center.
mwilliams@davisclipper.com
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