Tualatin proclaims October Domestic Violence Awareness Month and previews Family Peace Center opening

Tualatin City Council on Sept. 22 adopted a proclamation designating October 2025 as Domestic Violence Awareness Month and received a public presentation about the Family Peace Center, a Washington County coordinated facility set to open in January 2026 in the Amberglen area of Hillsboro.

The proclamation affirmed the city’s intent to support survivors and local organizations that provide crisis response and long-term services. The council recognized that domestic violence “is a serious crime” affecting people of all backgrounds and emphasized that reported incidents undercount true prevalence, the proclamation said.

The Family Peace Center presentation, delivered by Rachel Schultz, outlined partners and services the center will house. Schultz told the council the Family Justice Center has operated since 2018 and the new Family Peace Center will expand capacity from 18 to 22 organizations.

“This is a preview of what the Family Peace Center is going to look like,” Schultz said, and described three floors of services: survivor services on the first floor, community-based partner offices on the second and medical, court and law-enforcement services on the third. She named CARES Northwest and Providence Health as medical partners; CARES Northwest will operate Washington County’s first child abuse forensic medical clinic at the site, and Providence will provide an adult forensic clinic for assault examinations. Schultz said the Providence clinic will be the county’s first clinic-based forensic model and the second such model in Oregon.

Schultz listed legal and advocacy partners that will operate in the center, including Oregon Law Center, Oregon Crime Victims Law Center, St. Andrew’s Legal Clinic, Disability Rights Oregon, Domestic Violence Resource Center and VOICES Survivor Leadership Committee. She also described a planned therapeutic preschool and trauma-informed child and youth services with partners such as Adelante Mujeres and Village for 1.

Council president Pratt and Councilor Socko (name in transcript) joined in presenting the proclamation, and city staff noted that the Family Peace Center will be near Tanasbourne and accessible to public transit. The council asked staff to distribute public information about services and community events; Schultz said the center’s phone number will remain the same and a Family Peace Center website will be available when the center opens.

Why it matters: The Family Peace Center consolidates medical forensic care, court and law-enforcement presence, legal aid and survivor advocacy in one location, a model county officials and advocates say shortens service timelines for survivors and centralizes trauma-informed supports. The center’s new forensic medical capacity for children and adults represents an expansion of services in Washington County.

The meeting record also included statistics cited in the presentation and proclamation: the Family Justice Center served 7,204 survivors in 2024 and the Domestic Violence Resource Center provided 9,110 crisis services the same year; Washington County children who are child abuse victims often also live in homes with domestic violence, the proclamation said. Tualatin-specific data presented by Schultz said 151 people from Tualatin had been served at the Family Justice Center through July 2025.

What’s next: Schultz said the center is slated to open in January 2026; the council approved the proclamation and will receive follow-up materials and community event notices, including a local 5K for domestic violence awareness scheduled for Sunday, Oct. 12 at Harefield.