Stasya Jackson

Project Portfolio Description

My agency is Kids FIRST. Kids FIRST is a Child Advocacy Center in Eugene, OR that serves all of Lane county. Their mission is to provide intervention and advocacy to children who are victims of or witnesses to a crime and to advocate for the prevention of child abuse and mistreatment. Children are referred to KF directly by community partners: law enforcement, DHS Child Welfare, and medical professionals. Kids FIRST most often serves children for child sexual abuse, physical abuse, severe neglect, or witness to domestic violence. Approximately 3/4 of the children that are served are under age 12 (Kids FIRST, 2020). My project is based on establishing Kids FIRST as a “No Hit Zone”, and following all the necessary steps to do so including posting clear signage on the property of KF and offering training and resources to staff members on how to interrupt spanking or physical abuse in the KF setting. Studies show that by establishing No Hit Zones we are able to interrupt abuse and change peoples’ attitudes surrounding corporal punishment. Unfortunately, since these are long term changes in attitudes that are being quantified, I didn’t have the ability to see those results at the time of this project ending but I am optimistic in that establishing Kids FIRST as a No Hit Zone will cause a societal change in our community when it comes to interrupting abuse. In order to keep up the future sustainability for this project I recommend hanging the posters in a frame, and keeping up to date on No Hit Zone data and any further research that comes out discussing corporal punishment and spanking and the results of it on children and their development.