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What does your gift make possible?
When you donate to Family & Children Services, you become an investor. It is our responsibility to be strong stewards of your investment and to ensure it is put to the best use.
Here are some examples of how your donation can be put to work:
$25 gift
$100 gift
$250 gift
$500 gift
$1,000 gift
Endowment Gift
$25 gift:
This or any amount allows us to offer counseling on a sliding fee scale to clients.
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Real life example:
Lisa* came to Family & Children Services with severe depression. Her insurance covered a limited number of counseling sessions. Soon she had used up her benefit. She had made some progress, but she knew she needed a lot more treatment to recover from her depression.
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Although Family & Children Services' counseling fees are already set a reduced rate, the fee was too high for Lisa to pay on a weekly basis. Rather than limit her sessions to what she could afford, Family & Children Services offered her a lower fee. The agency is able to offer counseling sessions on a sliding scale because of donations from individuals that subsidize the real cost of services.
"I am so grateful for the sliding scale fees," Lisa said. "Paying something gave me a sense of dignity and the helping hand gave me the gift of good health again." |
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$100 gift:
Funds all the materials required for a life skills workshop for 20 youth in the Independent Living Program. Each year, the program teaches approximately 100 young people who, like Benjamin, are approaching the age of 18 and will soon age out of the foster care system, how to succeed on their own. |
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Real life example:
Benjamin* came to the ILP budgeting workshop never having managed a bank account or a budget. Having been moved around from home to home, he never had the opportunity to observe adults managing or creating a household budget. He only had a few more months before his 18th birthday and the end of his foster care placement, so he came eager to learn and with a lot of questions.
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| When the workshop began, all the youth received handbooks and resource sheets. Benjamin took a lot of notes, asked all of his questions, and went home confident that managing his money was something he could do. He also left having made plans to visit the bank with a couple of his friends to set up their first bank accounts. |
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$250 gift:
Provides a full psychiatric assessment and consultation for an at-risk child. |
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Real life example:
A.J.'s* family came to Family & Children Services on the recommendation of the doctor at their community medical clinic. A.J.'s third grade teacher had raised concerns about his inattention and difficulty following instructions, and his parents had begun to think that this was not a phase he would grow out of.
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A single visit to a child psychiatrist could have cost A.J.'s family more than $200. The assessment A.J.'s doctor recommended would require more than a basic fifty-minute appointment. For them, and many others in our community, a full mental health care assessment can be an out-of-reach luxury. Thanks to the generosity of donors, Family & Children Services gives families the ability to pay a sliding scale fee for a visit, with the highest price still less than $100.
A.J.'s family qualified for the lowest fee on the agency's sliding scale. The psychiatrist met with A.J. and his parents, talked with his teacher and with his doctor, and observed A.J. in class. After concluding this thorough assessment, the psychiatrist diagnosed A.J. as having attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). He set up a treatment plan, including regular appointments with him to monitor progress.
"We are so grateful to have been able to provide help for our son," said A.J.'s father. "Sometimes when you pay less than full price for something, you know you are not getting the full package. With Family & Children Services, we have always felt that our son is getting the top level of care." |
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$500 gift:
Provides for a licensed therapist to train twenty-five preschool teachers on-site at the childcare center, in order to identify children who are at-risk of emotional and behavioral problems. This allows the teachers like those at Diana's center to help children receive treatment before starting formal schooling. |
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Real life example:
When Diana*, a childcare center director, began hearing about attachment disorder last year, it sounded like something her staff should know more about. She requested a training session, and a Family & Children Services therapist came to her center. |
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The therapist reviewed the warning signs, causes, and common treatment methods with the entire staff of 25 teachers. Drawing on her observations of children at the center during her visits, she was able to explain attachment disorder to the staff with examples that were familiar to them. She also reviewed what services she could provide if the staff identified a child they thought should be evaluated.
"We want to do the best we can for these kids and we know that identifying these issues early gives them a greater chance of success in school and in life. The families at our center are all low-income, working multiple jobs. If these services weren't offered on-site and at no additional cost to them, it would be very difficult for these children to get help. We have also found the bilingual therapists to be caring and knowledgeable," said Diana.
Staying up-to-date on child development, early learning, children's literature, and health and safety information is a necessary challenge for early childhood professionals. In recent years, new research has also made early childhood mental health a critical issue of study. Because most childcare center employees have not taken extensive coursework in mental health, Family & Children Services has partnered with centers to provide on-site mental health services through the Early Childhood Services (ECS) program. In addition to staff training, therapists provide assessments of children who seem to be exhibiting emotional or behavioral issues, train staff on how to address these issues, and also work with parents. |
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$1,000 gift:
Helps heal a family torn apart by violence by providing group therapy sessions for all family members. In these sessions, parents like Laurie come to understand the effect of violent behavior on their kids and how to better communicate when angry, and children learn how to handle their hurt and emotions. |
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Real life example:
Laurie* was angry and then alarmed when a judge ordered her to complete a 16-week Parenting Without Violence program offered by Family & Children Services.
"It was a real wake-up call for me," she said later. "I had refused to see the harm I was causing my children and the terror in which they lived." |
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Mid-way through the program, she realized that she had to do more for her family. She talked with the program facilitator and found out that Family & Children Services also offers family counseling. She contacted the agency and explained that her family needed help learning to communicate with each other and that her children needed help dealing with what she had put them through. She also wanted to be sure the cycle of violence ended with her and that her children did not adopt the behavior she had shown to them. Sliding scale fees for counseling allowed the family to receive the counseling they needed to move forward together.
Through the sessions, Laurie heard very difficult things from her children. They were angry and scared and did not know if they could trust her. They wanted to believe she had changed her behavior, but they did not know if the change would stick. She also discovered that what her children knew of anger was what she had taught them through her behavior. They did not know how to understand their anger and make better choices; they acted like she did by shouting, threatening, and hitting.
"My kids and I had a lot more to work through than I thought," said Laurie. "It has taken time. I cannot give my children back those years of their childhoods, and I will always regret that. I am 100% committed to making my home safe and a place where we can talk and support each other, like our counselor taught us." |
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An Endowment Gift
Your gift to the Family & Children Services Endowment Fund helps to ensure services are available to the children, teens, adults, and families that need them now and for years to come. View our Endowment Policy or contact us to learn about our Endowment Fund.
* Names have been changed to protect client confidentiality.
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