Our Mission
CARES Northwest’s mission is to stop child abuse and neglect through multidisciplinary prevention, medical evaluation, and ongoing treatment in partnership with our community.
Our Goals
Minimize further trauma to alleged child abuse victims and their families by coordinating expert evaluation services in one location.
Provide a high level of expertise in the medical diagnosis and treatment of abused children.
Provide access to needed mental health interventions, as quickly as possible.
Provide recommendations for medical and psychological treatment and follow-up.
In 1998, we were selected as one of three regional training centers for Oregon children’s advocacy centers and child abuse multidisciplinary teams. We operated exclusively out of our main clinic on the Legacy Emanual/Randall Children’s Hospital campus in North Portland until 2019, when we launched a second “pilot” clinic at Cornell Medical Plaza in Beaverton. This expansion has allowed us to provide child abuse evaluation and trauma therapy services in both of our service counties.
Our History
CARES (Child Abuse Response and Evaluation Services) Northwest is one of the oldest children’s advocacy centers in the country and the largest in Oregon. Created in 1987, ours was the first program in the state to combine medical providers, interviewers, child protective services and law enforcement together in a multidisciplinary team to provide services and support for children with concerns of child abuse and neglect. Originally launched as a Legacy Health program, CARES Northwest evolved into a formal collaboration among Portland-area health systems, first with Kaiser Permanente and Oregon Health Sciences University Doernbecher Children’s Hospital in 1995 and then adding Providence Children’s Health in 2009.
Today, we are a partnership between four health systems – Randall Children’s Hospital at Legacy Emanuel, OHSU’s Doernbecher Children's Hospital, Kaiser Permanente, and Providence Children’s Health – and Multnomah and Washington counties. Advocating for over 42,000 children in our 35-year history, CARES Northwest is a leader in our region’s efforts to protect our increasingly diverse community of children and promote their healing.
CARES Northwest clinics reside on traditional village sites of Multnomah, Wasco, Cowlitz, Kathlamet, Clackamas, Bands of Chinook, Tualatin, Kalapuya, Molalla, and many other tribes who made their homes along the Columbia River.