ORANGE : Volunteers Helping Prevent Child Abuse

When Barbara Fults, a volunteer with a local child abuse prevention center, arrived at the home of her first client late one January afternoon, she found four children running around and “not a light bulb in the house.”

“This was a gal who had no idea how to raise children,” Fults said later.

Fults eventually became a kind of surrogate mother for her client, fielding as many as four phone calls a day from the woman seeking advice. After a year and a half, the case was closed, but the two women stayed in touch.

Like Fults, many volunteers for the Exchange Club Child Abuse Prevention Center of Orange spend a year or more working with families that have been reported for abuse. The center, part of a nationwide network that started in 1979, has just begun its summer volunteer sessions and will continue holding the classes until the end of August.

The Orange branch provides free service throughout Orange County and trains about 200 volunteers each year. The nonprofit organization raises more than half its $135,000 budget from private donations.

Since its inception, the exchange has won many admirers. Gene Howard, director of children’s services for the county’s Department of Social Services, says the department refers some of its less serious abuse cases to the exchange program, adding that the one-on-one contact provided by exchange volunteers can “make or break” a family situation.

Once certified, volunteers are assigned a case and visit the family at least once a week. Anyone over 21, who has had a “positive childhood,” may qualify as a volunteer, said Jenifer Gose, executive director of the organization.

Acting as role models or peers, volunteers provide support to abusive parents who may suffer from feelings of helplessness, isolation and low self-esteem.

At one of the recent training sessions, Georganne Bruce, assistant director of the organization, told three new recruits that they will be expected to refer parents to professional counseling services or housing and food programs.

“What our goal is, is to supply the moms with something that we all take for granted--a friend,” Bruce said.

Fults swears by the philosophy.

“These people are lonely, and if all of a sudden they have a friend, an unconditional friend, it’s really what they need,” said the Newport Beach resident who has spent five years as a volunteer and recently joined the organization’s board of directors.

Volunteer sessions continue throughout the summer. Information: (714)) 532-7663.