Today we’d like to introduce you to Bonnie Armstrong.
Bonnie, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
When my daughter, Tiffany, was shaken and beaten at the age of 2 ½ months, I was told by doctors that she would not live, and if she did live, she would be vegetative. I promised Tiffany that if she would fight, and breathe, I would make something good come from something so very evil. She not only lived, but today, Tiffany is a 25-year-old young woman and although left with Cortical Visual Impairment, seizures, and other disabilities, she attends Tarrant County College.
It has been 21 years since I sat at my kitchen table and with two other moms and created The Shaken Baby Alliance. At that time, we felt so alone. We knew nothing about non-profits. What we did know was that we never wanted a family to live our nightmare of Shaken Baby Syndrome.
I have kept my promise to Tiffany. I have been able to utilize my background in education and work with some of the best forensic professionals in the world to develop outstanding programs designed to meet the needs of victim families, and those charged with the task of protecting our most vulnerable.
Over the past 20 years, SBA has supported families in need while developing into a nationally recognized forensic training and case consulting agency for professionals in the field of child physical abuse. Today, The Shaken Baby Alliance has three programs: Victim Family Services, Professional Support (Training and Case Consultations) and Prevention Education.
In 1998, the Alliance obtained its 501 (c) 3 status. Since 1998, we supported 5,588 victim family members, trained 8,491 high schoolers, educated 20,328 adults/professionals, and provided 1,964 case consultations for investigative and legal professionals involved in criminal defense, civil cases, and prosecution.
In February 2019, I was honored to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Gundersen National Child Abuse Training Center. I was also the first child abuse keynote speaker for the 7,000 members American Academy of Forensic Sciences annual meeting. These honors represent so many people in my life who have stood by me, encouraged me, challenged me, and loved me. The Shaken Baby Alliance exists because of our teamwork and dedication to children.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
As a non-profit, The Shaken Baby Alliance continually struggles to find enough resources – both financial and human – to serve those families and professionals who request our services. In the beginning, the obstacles were many, but we overcame those obstacles by bringing together an outstanding group of families and professionals to guide our development.
Today, our greatest challenge is financial as the need for services is greater than the resources. With a budget under $500,000, we struggle to serve all of the families and professionals who request our help.
How does one decide whether to help the father who has just lost their four-month-old baby, or the mother that is standing by her child’s ICU bed and calling for help to understand what has happened, or the police detective that needs assistance with scene investigation or interview techniques so he or she can be thorough and yet understanding of the horrible position of the parent. Of course, we need to help all three.
Head injuries are the leading cause of death and disability in young children (Klevens, 2010). Shaken Baby Syndrome is a subset of Abusive Head Trauma (AHT), the leading cause of fatal head injuries in children younger than two years. At least 1 in 4 infants who are violently shaken die from this form of child abuse (Carbaugh, 2004). Babies less than one year of age are at greatest risk of injury. Evidence of previous abuse is found in 33-40% of SBS cases (Alexander, 2001).
This means children are generally abused more than once and the violence increases with each incidence until the child suffers catastrophic injury and is brought to the attention of medical providers. Besides head and brain injuries, other forms of child abuse include skin injuries, fractures, abdominal injuries, and burns. These forms of abuse result in pain, permanent injury, and disfigurement. Neglect is often unrecognized and, when reported, can be challenging to investigate and prosecute. Our youngest and most vulnerable victims, including children with disabilities, often cannot make an outcry or tell what has happened. Our programs serve these children and families and the professionals involved in child physical abuse cases and that requires financial resources to meet these needs.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about The Shaken Baby Alliance – what should we know?
The Shaken Baby Alliance is the only agency in the nation that provides support for families AND forensic professionals involved in child abuse cases. The goal of all SBA programs is to support families who have experienced childhood physical abuse, provide current, top-rated forensic investigative training to multidisciplinary professionals, provide technical support through our Case Consultation services so cases will have successful legal outcomes, and prevent child abuse by educating those populations most likely to abuse children.
We address the complex issues related to child physical abuse cases by using a multidisciplinary group of staff, experts, and volunteers.
Our three programs include:
1. VICTIM FAMILY SERVICES
We reach families left behind and not served by other programs, including families with a child who has died or survived child abuse. We help with everything from financial and emotional support to assistance navigating the education, health, and legal systems, free of charge.
We have had families with us since our opening in 1998. Their needs fluctuate. The family of a child who has died may need help with funeral arrangements, obtaining a death certificate, grief counseling, working with the professionals, education on medical terms, and a plethora of unknowns.
If the child survives the abusive head trauma incident, we help them navigate a maze of complicated systems related to the care of their child, surviving siblings, and the entire family. Since most children are shaken as infants and the need for services fluctuates over the child’s lifetime, these services are offered over many years.
Some examples of our services include:
1) The father of Baby D, who died in 2002, calls us when he has a bad day.
2) After a case consultation and review by an SBA volunteer forensic pathologist, injuries originally deemed accidental were found to support death by suffocation of a 16-day old infant. The maternal grandmother calls SBA to grieve and find a repository for her conflicted feelings of anger and compassion for the person who caused the death of her precious grandchild and to deal with her grief.
3) A mother of a 19-year-old daughter shaken with severe disabilities called us for help with special equipment for her daughter to help with bathing and moving her from bed to her wheelchair.
2. PROFESSIONAL SUPPORT
a. Training for Multi-Disciplinary Professionals: While child sexual abuse is prosecuted at a much higher rate, child physical abuse is committed more often. Scarce resources exist for the advanced forensic training needed to investigate these cases, and SBS offers comprehensive training to fill this gap. We provide a full range of forensic investigative training programs for professionals including law enforcement, CPS, medical practitioners, First Responders, and legal professionals related to child physical abuse, child welfare, and elder abuse
b. Case Consultations Services: We provide case consultation services upon request related to crimes against children and the elderly. Services offered include case analysis, technical support for crime scene investigation, developing interview questions, timelines or visual aids, and expert witness recommendations.
3. PREVENTION EDUCATION
We provide education to Middle and High School Students, Childcare staff, hospital staff, and the Community. As crying is the number one trigger for Shaken Baby Syndrome abuse, we offer education related to coping with crying. SBA provides our DVD, When Babies Cry, to over 2,000 community members yearly, including teachers, child care providers, and hospitals.
HOW YOU CAN HELP
1. We need volunteers, teams, and sponsors for our annual Clay Shoot for Kids Fundraiser, Saturday, May 4, 2019, at Alpine Shooting Range. Please go to our website www.shakenbaby.org or email mneal@shakenbaby.org for more info.
2. Donate cash or stock at www.shakenbaby.org or call us at 817-882-8686.
3. Have your high school or university promote prevention education. SBA has had the honor to work with the Texas Christian University (TCU) and Dr. Brian West through the TCU Steel Band and local high school percussion teams to promote our prevention education program through our “Beat Drums, Not Babies”. These outstanding college and high school students use their talent in percussion to promote Shaken Baby Syndrome awareness and prevention.
4. Have your organization do a fundraiser for SBA. Speedway Children’s Charities is looking to hire 50/50 Raffle ticket sellers! SCC will host this event on each of our major race weekends in March, June, and November. Groups and organizations will be paid $10 per hour, per person. Consider a fundraiser for SBA. Contact scc@texasmotorspeedway.com and let them know you want the proceeds to go to The Shaken Baby Alliance.
Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
The Shaken Baby Alliance has been built with family and professionals working together to meet the mission of the agency. The agency has experienced tremendous growth due to the ability of these individuals to work together in a community spirit as employees, contractors, faculty, and volunteers of the agency. Melonie Caster and Kim Kang were instrumental in getting the SBA formalized into a 501 (c) 3 agency and getting the SBA off the ground. Rob Parish, a prosecutor from Salt Lake County, Utah helped us produce our first training program and taught us the importance of supporting professionals as they work for our children. The Shaken Baby Alliance Board of Directors have dedicated many years to this agency and our Curriculum Development and Training Faculty has donated thousands of hours of their time to build our training and Case Consultation programs. Most importantly, the families of abused children have shared their pain, hope, and love and allowed us to serve them and their precious children.
Contact Info:
- Address: 8101 Boat Club Road
Suite 240, #154
Fort Worth, TX 76179 - Website: www.shakenbaby.org
- Phone: 817-882-8686
- Email: tiffany.armstrong550@my.tccd.edu
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shakenbaby.org
- Other: https://www.facebook.com/clayshootforkids
Image Credit:
Dr. Brian West, Bonnie Armstrong, Brittany Clemons
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