Monday, September 26, 2016

Beech Brook will host its 164th Annual Meeting this Thursday, September 29, 2016, on its campus at 3737 Lander Rd., Pepper Pike. The event will begin with a reception at 5:30 p.m., followed by dinner and the program.

Guest speaker for this year’s event is Amy Templeman, director of the Washington D.C.-based program Within Our Reach.

The goal of her office is to accelerate the recommendations of Within Our Reach: a National Strategy to Eliminate Child Abuse and Neglect Fatalities, a report of the federal Commission to Eliminate Child Abuse and Neglect Fatalities (CECANF). Prior to joining the Alliance, Amy was the acting executive director of CECANF and a key contributor to commission’s work.

According to CECANF, 1,500-3,000 children die each year in this country as a result of abuse and neglect. The report calls for a redesign of the network of services and supports to focus on prevention and early intervention programs rather than the current approach which often waits until after a child has been seriously harmed or killed.

“We are delighted that Amy will be joining us at a time in which Beech Brook has made the decision to expand our efforts in prevention and early intervention,” said Debra Rex, Beech Brook president/CEO. “Earlier this year, we made the difficult decision to close our residential treatment programs so that we could do just what this report recommends, and that is to focus all our resources and expertise in programs designed to keep children safe, identify problems early, and build strong families.

“For more than 20 years, we have been steadily expanding our efforts to provide these services in the community so that we can prevent the devastating and lifelong impact of abuse and neglect that we saw in children who ended up in residential treatment.”

Prior to joining “Within Our Reach,” Templeman was a manager for the District of Columbia’s Child and Family Services Agency where she established a new Office of Well Being and directed programs in domestic violence, education, substance abuse, housing and child care. Amy was also leader of a program at the Center for Disease Control to improve adolescent mental health in an urban youth employment and training setting, while concurrently working for the Center for Adolescent Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Beech Brook will also honor two individuals with the Suzanne Brookhart Harrison Award for Exceptional Service to Children. This year’s honorees are William M. Denihan, CEO of the Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services Board of Cuyahoga County, and Terri Davis, senior direction of Prevention and Early Intervention Programs at Beech Brook.

The cost for the annual meeting dinner is $25. For more information, contact Beech Brook at 216.831.2255 or register online at https://www.beechbrook.org/annual-meeting/.