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Founding member and longtime Amberly’s Place Executive Director Diane Umphress announced her retirement from the organization that has been a voice and a beacon of hope for abuse victims for more than 20 years. Umphress will retire on May 15.
Amberly’s Place, a family advocacy center, has helped thousands of victims on their journey from victim to survivor to thriver. Umphress has passionately carried the torch for victim rights throughout Yuma County and Arizona for more than two decades.
Her work started with the Yuma County Attorney’s Office as a victim advocate and evolved as a leader among her peers. She was instrumental in planting the seeds that led to the creation of the Yuma County Family Advocacy Coalition which eventually founded Amberly’s Place.
Umphress worked diligently to encourage the creation of best practice protocols for child abuse and sexual assault investigations in Yuma County. Working with local law enforcement agencies and with the training they provided for victim advocates, these protocols led the way for Amberly’s Place to be the first agency to offer on-scene crisis response. This has led to great improvements in how victims of these crimes are treated and assisted.
Amberly’s Place awarded vacation packages to a few fortunate families during a virtual drawing of the Week in Paradise fundraiser held on Friday. This is the biggest fundraiser of the year for the family advocacy center, which assists abuse victims in Yuma County and part of Imperial County.
Donations to Amberly’s Place have been down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, the Thrift Shoppe closed for an extended time, which further hurt the emergency fund. The agency hopes to recoup some of the lost donations through the Week in Paradise fundraiser.
The goal was to sell 5,000 tickets at $10 each to raise $50,000. The agency ended up selling 5,500, mostly sold online for the first time. It looks like the agency exceeded the goal.
• Thumbs up to those who have purchased tickets to support Amberly’s Place and its annual Week in Paradise fundraiser. The drawing is tonight at 6 p.m. – if you haven’t yet purchased a ticket, visit www.AmberlysPlace.com
The number of reported abuse cases are down 45% overall from this time last year, and Amberly’s Place agency is providing services to more adults than children.
“This pattern is really worrisome as it is not in keeping with what we have seen over the last 20 years,” said Diane Umphress, executive director of the family advocacy center, which assists abuse victims in Yuma County and part of Imperial County.
In August, Amberly’s Place experienced a drop of 70% in primary victims of child physical abuse and neglect and 26% in primary victims of child sexual abuse and assault, compared with the same time last year.
Grand Prize Hawaiian Getaway
7-day/6-night trip to Oahu, Hawaii, for 2 with hotel and airfare included, valid until December 2021; $300 travel money sponsored by Brian Butcher of Edward Jones; and hairstyles for 2 by The Sassy Seale Hair Salon.
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Normally Amberly’s Place holds Week in Paradise, its biggest fundraiser of the year, in June, but with the COVID-19 pandemic and the shutdown of businesses, schools and venues, the organization decided to hold off until a better time.
Now is that time. People are tired of staying home and antsy for a great family vacation to a safe location where social distancing is not a problem.
More importantly, even though the pandemic is not over, Amberly’s Place needs to generate funds to ensure that it can continue to offer the same high quality of care to victims of abuse that it has provided to the community for over 20 years
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Yuma– La doctora Emilia Matos, pediátra de largo tiempo en Yuma, falleció el lunes durante la mañana debido a causas relacionadas a COVID-19, dio a conocer el Centro Médico Regional de Yuma.
Falleció luego de una batalla de semanas bajo atención de colegas de la profesión médica quienes la veneraban como figura clave en la comunidad de profesionistas del cuidado de salud.
“Durante las últimas dos semanas, yo mantuve esperanzas de que su condición se mejorara”, dijo el doctor Bharat Magu, oficial médico principal del hospital (YRMC). “Se extrañará mucho su amistad, su sonrisa y su entusiasmo para continuar brindando cuidado a niños y jóvenes de la comunidad”.
Yuma Regional Medical Center (YRMC) announced Monday that longtime pediatrician Dr. Emilia Matos died early that morning in the care of fellow medical professionals who revered her as a key figure in the local medical community.
According to YRMC, Matos died of COVID-19-related causes.
“For (the) last two weeks, I was keeping the hope that her condition would turn around,” YRMC Chief Medical Officer Bharat Magu said in a news release. “Her kindness, her smile and her enthusiasm to continue providing care to young ones in the community will be dearly missed.”
Gov. Doug Ducey tours Amberly's Place Family Advocacy Center during a Jan. 21 visit to Yuma. Later, during his State of the State, Ducey said he and his wife, Angela, were impressed by what they saw and how the government, private sector, faith-based communities, law enforcement, mental health professionals, pastors and priests “come together to make a real difference for our most vulnerable.”
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