Sunday evening

"TJ" and "Brandon" tap on the door to my side of the office. They are peering in the window, sure that I am here, since my car is out front. They see me approaching the door, and TJ gives a countdown, 3-2-1, and I open the door magically (as far as Brandon is concerned). They ask if they can come in and get on the computers for awhile. TJ is barefoot; I tease him about walking on these neighborhood streets and sidewalks barefoot- lots of glass and stuff to cut your feet on.
They come in, glance around for anything appetizing snack food wise. They head to the computers and each get on one, to get on some on-line game.
This is 6:30 pm on Sunday afternoon. I have been working on a grant for the Mid Town Family Resource Center; a mid-size grant that could help fund summer programming for Middle School and High school students (young people like TJ and Brandon). I got sidetracked looking at the material for the upcoming Drop Out Prevention Summit we are having in our area on April 2nd. This is part of a national effort by America's Promise (and thus WV's Promise) to conduct summits all over the country, to have people get together and discuss what can be done to improve our graduation rates, engage more discouraged students into staying in school and similar topics. Our two VISTA's are actively involved in the organizing of the local event, and then a statewide summit in July. They are also going to be attending a number of the other summits around the state over the next month. Kirsten Olson is the speaking at ours. I just looked up her website, and was very impressed with her approach to the issues of discussion.
I also get sidetracked planning details of the week ahead; yet another busy one. Tomorrow I am going to Charleston to attend a meeting of the community and technical colleges and some stakeholders to young people in the foster care and juvenile systems as they prepare for adulthood. This group has been meeting a couple of times to try to figure out what the community and technical colleges could do to help these youth.
Later in the week, I hope to attend Children's Day at the Legislature to advocate for a few of the most pressing issues for our agency, and the families and children we serve. We also have a family night for our Mid Town Family Resource Center coming up this week, someone from the Health Department will talk to the neighborhood parents about services they have. I will be presenting at a Transitional LIfe Fair for special education students in the Wood County schools on Wednesday- some sessions with those students to talk about opportunities to serve the community as they transition, and some of the kinds of jobs available in the human service fields.
Jim, from the Runaway and Homeless Youth program, is intrigued with a session he will be attending Saturday in Ritchie County, of a group called "Relatives as Parents." Carna will be at a statewide Permanency / Adoption conference Tuesday through Thursday in Morgantown. Discussions will include how to move toward Permanency more effectively for children in our state. Shelley will be attending a training session at WVU's Social Work program in Charleston on being a field instructor for the program on Wednesday. We are having a lunch time session on Wednesday, where RFTS clients (young mothers, grandmother caretakers, etc.) and some of the staff, over lunch, go over some of the current stressors they face, and share some resources in the community, and offer mutual support. Tuesday evening we are hosting a support group start-up for veterans and their families who face post traumatic stress and / or traumatic brain injury.
We're hoping to host Pam Jeffers, from Youth Service Systems, Inc. on Tuesday; now that we have a young man placed in a host home, we have some details to discuss about the financial and logistical arrangements. Some of the staff from our site will attend the monthly Youth and Adolescent Council of the Wood County Family Resource Network on Thursday. That group is in a transition, with the former Wood County FRN director leaving a few months ago, and the position currently not filled. They are looking for someone to volunteer to chair the Youth and Adolescent Council!!!! I'm not going to volunteer for that one!!!!!
I SHOULD also be sorting through some records in preparation for the First Vinyl Record Sale of the year, April 18th. They are looking pretty chaotic, if not intriguing, over there in the corner of this office. I played a few records today while working, since no one else was around to bother with my rather eclectic tastes in music.
Oops- the boys in the other room just made a big loud noise and I better go see what that was.