Youth Service Systems liaison visited yesterday

Our Transitional Living Program is a sub-contract with Youth Services System of Wheeling. Pam Jeffers, our liaison with YSS stopped down to visit Lisa, and go over program details yesterday. They took a "wild ride" out to our host home in Wirt County as part of the day's activities! Lisa felt the visit went well, and helped her focus some of her busy case work- and Pam is always a pleasant and supportive visitor! This program is really a hopping one for us; with lots of good support given to many young adults in the community.

Welcome to a new after school tutor

The Gustke Shelter students now have a new after school tutor who began this week; Laurie. We welcome her, and already she is putting a lot of positive energy into the students tutoring needs (even despite the great spring weather that makes it hard to work on homework!!)

School is winding down before Spring Break!

There is only one more day of school before spring break. The after school staff has remained very busy, creative and energetic at their work with the McKinley students. Saturday, there is an Easter Egg Hunt sponsored by several area, and neighborhood churches, that we are invited to- and they will be promoting our "pinwheel" campaign to recognize National Child Abuse Prevention Month, which starts tomorrow. Stay tuned for many more examples of activities and community awareness we are going to be engaged in during April.

Jim and Chris have begun some PRIDE training

PRIDE is the acronym for the foster parent training that our agency uses to prepare foster and adoptive parents. Jim and Chris, in our Runaway and Homeless Youth program (Basic Center) were trained in PRIDE a month or so ago, and have begun a PRIDE training process with a local family.

Hosting the Alliance for Children board meeting

The Gustke Shelter hosted the Alliance for Children board meeting today. Scott Boileau and the member agency exec's had a full agenda- but were graciously hosted by Denise and the Gustke Shelter staff, for a tour, a lunch and general fine hospitality. Several of the Board members also got a quick tour of the community based services offices, and seemed intrigued by the many programs and services and examples of community engagement they observed.

Advisory Council meeting recap

We had a great Advisory Council meeting yesterday here at the Parkersburg site of CHS. Kathy Johnson and Mary White visited to participate. We had one new member, and a good solid crew of the on-going members. The staff were also well represented. We covered a LOT of group, with the primary goal of taking the initial planning steps for our fall major fund raiser event. Stay tuned to hear updates on the next planning steps. All of the Council members made great contributions, and we appreciated Mary and Kathy's input also. The staff are always appreciated of the support shown by the Advisory Council, as we gear up for a great year of 2010 in our outreach and development, and community engagement.

Parents "Good Beginnings" Retreat - first report

Lisa gave a quick, preliminary report that the retreat went excellently at North Bend State Park this weekend (when she returned to drop off some items to the office). I will be eager to hear a fuller report, and get some reactions and some sense of what this did for the parents in terms of leadership development! And, of course, will be eager to hear the "fun" stories, too!!!