The Family Corner- Summer Activities for Families
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Are you having any fun?
Summers should be all about fun! But too often, for parents they are
about too little time to get everything done and still enjoy the summer with
the family. For kids, how many times have we heard, "I'm bored, there's nothing
to do"?
In our work with all kinds of families, we've found that time spent
having safe fun together may be the most important time that
families have. But, what do you do with limited time, or when the weather
turns bad? Turns out that there are a million good ideas out there, but we
thought we'd share just a few of them thanks to the folks from Family
Education.
Follow these links to tips on summer activities
and rainy-day activities....And enjoy yourselves!
Rainy Day Activities: Rainy Day Activities
Summer Activities: Summer Activities
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Program Highlight- Providing Female Inmates with the tools to succeed
| We are excited to
announce our newest program. Under agreement with the
Massachusetts Department of Corrections, Family Continuity has recently begun a
three year program providing specialized services to female inmates at MCI
Framingham and the South Middlesex Correctional Center with a fluid
series of short term rehabilitation programs designed to help with their
re-entry to community life and deal with some of the issues that have
contributed to their past criminal behavior. The program will consist of Short-
and Long-term psycho-educational groups that explore several areas found to be
critical to a successful return to community and family life.
The Short-term series
includes focus on:
- Healthy
Relationships, and
the challenges of creating, improving and maintaining them,
- Self-Esteem,
inorder to help group members improve their
levels of sense of worth and confidence,
- Food--
Its Use and Misuse, to
improve health and the capacity to contribute to work and family life,
- Gender
Roles and Relationships, to strengthen understanding of her role and responsibility in
relationships, and
- Therapeutic
Journaling, a way to use of writing/journaling can help manage
stress, painful emotions, improve communication skills, and self understanding.
The Long-Term program is for women who were sexually abused and
it will assist participants in dealing with the effects of sexual abuse and/or
rape. Information covered in these meetings includes topics such as:
- The
definitions of sexual abuse and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and
- How the
issues of sexual abuse and substance abuse are interrelated.
Psycho education, teaching Relaxation,
Affective Expression and Modulation, Cognitive Coping and Processing Trauma
will provide the foundation of the series.
We believe that these programs, Family Continuity's first with DOC
inmates, will have a real impact on these women and their ability to succeed in
the community and their family life upon their release. For more information, contact
Craig Maxim at (508)488-5062.
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Painting a Picture of Health and Wellbeing
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On May 26th, the National Art Honor Society of
Northbridge High School presented and hung a mural to enhance the new
children's waiting area of Family Continuity's Whitinsville Mental
Health Clinic located at 76 Church Street. The art work, a bright and
whimsical oil rendition of beloved cartoon characters waiting to talk
to a counselor, was funded through a grant from the Northbridge
Cultural Council, a local agency supported by the Massachusetts
Cultural Council. Clinic Director, Craig Maxim, was looking for a way
to utilize community resources to create a child friendly atmosphere in
a clinical setting and found the perfect vehicle for doing so through a
group of gifted, willing students and their teachers in the local high
school.
The five students: seniors, Amy Branchaud, Katie Duvernay, Olivia
Marchi, Briana Bouthillette, and sophomore Sarah Deneault are all
members of the National Art Honor Society, an after-school club that
seeks to "better the community through art," as explained by art
teachers Jennifer Mukerrin and Danielle Pianka. The project was
entirely student directed under the supervision of the two art
teachers. Each student developed a concept, submitted sketches, and
together made the final decision of the image that would help children
and their families feel more at ease. Using a rough draft drawn by Amy
Branchaud, the students projected the image for reference, stretched
their own 4' by 6' canvas and started painting. Each
artist was initially assigned a character to paint; however, individual
tasks soon became a truly collaborative effort as each student carved
out time from free periods during school hours in addition to the
after-school hours normally dedicated to the club activity, resulting
in a finished product that is truly an original work of art. Art
teachers Mukerrin and Pianka stated, "These five students went above
and beyond what was required of them...dedicating more than 80 hours to
bring this project to fruition; we are immensely proud of them."
The mural is a brilliant example of organizations partnering together to
meet the needs of individuals and families within our community. The
artists from the Northbridge High National Art Honor Society, the
Northbridge Cultural Council, and Family Continuity are committed to
providing a safe and pleasant environment in which to improve mental
health and wellbeing in the Blackstone Valley.
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Volunteers Needed
| You don't need to be a professional to
change the lives of families, children, elders, and other of your neighbors.
Family Continuity provides services at almost 20 sites around Massachusetts,
and each one offers opportunities for volunteer work that can make an important
contribution. We are looking for men and women for volunteer work in our hub offices
to support the important work that we are doing in the community by performing
light office work.
For additional information,please call our
Information Line at 1-866-219-3320.
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Real Stories |
Real Stories aren't just about how Family Continuity changes the lives of its families. Our work almost always changes us as well, as you will see in this recent letter from one of our staff...
 Bobby's Story
From birth, Bobby has had a very difficult life. He was born prematurely, in the sixth month of pregnancy, and spent the first four months of his life in the ICU. Included in numerous complications of his premature birth, he was born with detached retinas and had to have eye surgery as a newborn. He has also experienced significant developmental delays and has been diagnosed with mild mental retardation. He needs substantial support in order to manage academic tasks and has difficulty functioning in a mainstream classroom. Bobby also has significant social impairments as a result of his inability to interact appropriately and form relationships with peers or adults, leaving him well behind his peers in his emotional development. Consequently, Bobby has often been bullied by peers, abused and exploited by others, as well as having been exposed to severe domestic violence as a child. He struggles with symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Despite all of the above, Bobby is a very friendly, kind young man. He has a great sense of humor and an incredibly positive outlook on life. He loves and cares deeply for his family members and is truly a joy to be around. Bobby has two older siblings who are both musically gifted. He is very proud of them and strives to achieve the same level of proficiency they both enjoy. He is passionate and quite skilled in writing and recording his own music. He spends endless amount of hours teaching himself how to record and mix music on the computer. Read the rest of Bobby's Story.
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Family Continuity's Mission Statement:
Supporting family success in every community by empowering people, enhancing their strengths, and creating solutions through partnerships to achieve hope, positive change and meaningful lives.
Agency Values: Family, Community, Advocacy, Leadership, and Change Treatment Philosophy, founded on the belief that positive change is always possible:
* The most effective treatment provides a continuity of care, acknowledging that connected, relevant supportive services to clients/client families promote recovery, stability, self advocacy and permanency in the midst of changing needs.
* Therapeutic change occurs in the context of a dynamic treatment partnership between clients and helpers that is founded on choice, respect, honesty, and a shared responsibility for and participation in the development of solutions.
* Effective treatment is empowering and strength-based, recognizing that all clients possess resources for change and that change is possible when these resources are utilized.
* Creating meaningful lives starts with identifying goals and connecting that to individualized, flexible and creative treatment planning that incorporates a client's family/community relationships, culture, and context. |
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