Who We Are
CAPC represents over 30 public and community based organizations.
The Child Abuse Prevention Council (CAPC) of Tulare County was established as a private nonprofit council in 1982 in Visalia. The purpose of the CAPC has always been the promotion of child abuse prevention in the County through advocacy and education.
In 2005, the CAPC engaged in its first strategic planning effort and created vision and mission statements, which continue to illustrate and reflect the CAPC’s purpose:
Our Vision is to end child abuse by promoting healthy families where children realize their potential, becoming successful community members.
Our Mission is to prevent child abuse by building and maintaining community collaborations, by coordinating quality services, and by disseminating information for children and families.
We Value and believe in the strengths and resilience of families, accountability and empowerment of our communities, and the prevention of child abuse and neglect.
What We Have Achieved
In its 34-year history, the CAPC is proud of its many accomplishments, which include:
- Creating Communities For Child Well Being, beginning with Farmersville and Woodlake. See more
- Bringing The Lisa Project to Tulare County. CAPC brought the exhibit to several cities starting in 2010. In 2016, CAPC gained licensing and ownership of its own The Lisa Project in 10 exhibit to use in 9 counties in Central California. See more
- Helping to create and support student action groups in high schools in Tulare County. See more
- Hosting the annual Cynthia Lockhart-Mummery Memorial Conference since 2006. See more
- Collaborating in March on Main, the kick-off event for April as Child Abuse Prevention Month.
- Spearheading April’s Child Abuse Prevention Awareness (Blue Ribbon) Month and Blue Ribbon Campaign activities. See more
- Conducting mandated reported training. See more
- Supporting and participating in the Child Protection Planning Council.
- Conducting media campaigns and community education.
- Recommending grant allocations to Tulare County Board of Supervisors in collaboration with the CAPC/CPPC Joint Allocations Committee for the Children’s Trust Fund (CTF), Community Based Child Abuse Prevention (CBCAP), and Child Abuse Prevention Intervention and Treatment funds (CAPIT).
- Providing blue ribbon materials to assist our collaborative partners with local child abuse prevention activities. See more
- Conducting various needs assessments.
- Organizing and participating in community forums and events.
- Providing speakers to groups about how to prevent child abuse. See more
- Partnering with those in the county addressing commercial sexual exploitation of children/ child sex trafficking (CSEC), by focusing a conference on CSEC, creating the Tulare County Human Trafficking Resources website and newsletter, and working with partners on CSEC related events and projects. See more
CAPC Board of Directors
Frank Ruiz
Vise President/ Secretary
Frank is a Deputy County Counsel with the County of Kings handling exclusively child abuse matters. He holds a legal specialization with the State Bar of California in Child Welfare Law and has made the advocacy for children his priority. When Frank is not in the courtroom, he sits as a Board Member to the Tulare County Child Abuse Prevention Council and currently is the Chairperson for the City of Visalia's Citizens Advisory Committee. Now entering his 7th year of volunteering with city committees, Frank has demonstrated his willingness to give back to the community. Frank holds a 1st degree Black Belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and has been training for 19 years. He enjoys traveling up and down the state of California coaching his 3 children as they compete in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Soccer, Baseball, and Softball. When the schedule permits, Frank can be found out in the community on a date night with his wife of 12 years.
Angela Rodd-Terry
Board Member
I have been serving the most vulnerable in our communities for the past 32 years, making recommendations to courts regarding the best interest of infants, children, adults, and the elderly. My extensive experience working with families in the context of the court system gives a legal perspective when considering protection and safety of children in Tulare County. This experience includes working in Child Welfare Services in several Counties in California, and for a local non-profit foster care agency. My years in management has developed my leadership skills in personnel management, strategic planning, budgeting, grant writing, marketing, and collaborating, to name a few. Our Court used to regularly attend CAPC meetings over 10 years ago; and when I became the Director, it was important to me to resume attendance at CAPC in order to have a presence in the community in order to collaborate with others who share a same mission of protecting the most vulnerable in our community, to have a place to share and examine trends and the needs of the community, and to implement strategies to ensure families are thriving in Tulare County.
Miriam Sallam
Treasure
I have served as the Director of the Foster Care Education Program at the College of the Sequoias Community College for five years. This role has afforded me the opportunity to serve current and transitional-aged foster youth. In addition, I provide federal and state mandated trainings to resource parents and foster youth who are independent living eligible. I have earned a Bachelor and Master’s Degree in Social Work from Fresno State University. I have eight and a half years of experience working with the child welfare system – serving children and families. Lastly, I have been an adjunct instructor for Fresno Pacific University for two years. I enjoy teaching introduction to social work and providing field supervision to social work students interns
Dr. Kamel Kamel,MD
Board Member
Kamel Kamel MD, born in Egypt , graduated from Cairo university, served the underserved communities in Egypt for 8 years as a general physician before I came to the States in 2008. It took me 4 years to pass my USMLE exam, and another 3 years of family medicine residency at Kaweah Health. After graduation in 2016, I decided to stay in Visalia to serve the community. I spent my week between the clinic and the hospital. I have a very big coptic community in Visalia, like to attend our church very often. In my free time I go to the gym and play table tennis.
Staff
