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In This Issue |
Program Highlight |
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Greetings from the CEO,
It's June, the start of the summer. Once was a time when the kids went outdoors, played games, explored their worlds, rarely to be seen except for mealtimes until September. At least that's how I remember it. This means that they also have more unsupervised time than at any other point in the year. Parents try to keep on top of what they're up to, but this is not always possible. Parents all think they are raising good kids, but even good kids make mistakes, sometimes display poor judgment.
This newsletter looks at an old danger that is receiving more attention lately, Bullying. Family Continuity's "It's Not Cool to Be Cruel" campaign provides some tips to help curb bullying in your neighborhood and schools. It also provides some advice if you find that your own child is involved in bullying. Finally, you'll learn about a partnership initiative that one of Family Continuity's programs, the Whitinsville Clinic, is leading to help a community find better ways to keep its children and youths safe from bullying and a host of other threats to their safety.
As we enter the summer of 2011, please remember to pay attention to safety as you are planning recreation, work, and family activities.
Regards,  Earl "Skip" Stuck |
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The Family Corner
It's Not Cool to be Cruel!
That is the message that stands behind the efforts of Lynn Powers and Family Continuity's Lowell Creative Family Collaboration (Wraparound) Program and its efforts to curb bullying. Recent tragic events and the media coverage surrounding them have focused attention on the age old problem of bullying and its impact on children and youths. We have all experienced it at some point in our lives; being bullied, perhaps intimidating someone else, or both. We know that its effects can be devastating. We are also seeing that the "school yard" bully is changing, with the advent of the Internet and social networking, bulling and other forms of harassment are taking place in real-space, and in cyber-space, and it's happening 24 hours a day.
Presently, the Lowell program is providing training for parents on how to identify bullying and what to do about it with their kids. Weekend children's activity groups are talking about how to manage a bullying situation, with kids contracting to not bully themselves and to help others who find themselves in this position. Several thousand "It's Not Cool to Be Cruel" rubber bracelets have been designed, purchased and distributed to continue to raise public awareness. Finally, a conference is being planned for this coming fall, bringing together parents, school and social service and mental health leaders, highlighting successful anti-bullying efforts.

Stay tuned for more details as plans proceed. Click on the title for a link to the special feature "What if My Child is a Bully" as well as for more information about bullying and what you can do to stop it, or contact Lynn Powers regarding other resources and up-coming events at (978) 620-2529. |
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Real Stories
Lisa's Story
"Supporting family success in every community" is our mission. But just how do you describe a family's "success"? This recent letter provides at least one family's answer.
How do you come back from not just one, but from a number of setbacks? Sooner or later we'll all face this crisis. This is the story of Lisa, and how she faced her crisis in her own words...
Lisa's Story, aged 33
It took a long time before I actually had enough courage to call for help. Not that I didn't have the Family Continuity phone number or the address for months, but sometimes you are the last person who stops and looks at yourself and says enough is enough it can only help.
Soon after I scheduled my first appointment I was a little bit hesitant because my clinician was an intern. I decided to give it a shot anyways it couldn't hurt and in my opinion everyone needs to learn. In the back of my mind no matter how I felt about the clinician, getting my foot in the door was the most important thing.
She asked me, so what's going on. Pleading my case I cried for the next 59 minutes. I'm not crazy, but I don't know how to stop it. It's not like me at all and I feel so all alone! Once I finally finished defending myself I began to explain what was really going on. To make a long story short my husband and 2 year old daughter moved into a new house, I never liked change and, soon after I lost my job. When I was 5 months pregnant I lost my twins, my husband had a stroke and needed to have heart surgery to repair the hole in his heart and soon after that he lost his job. Everyday I feared that something else bad would happen, that I was going to die. I was thinking only bad thoughts and being afraid to do anything that might be remotely fun. I was having 3 to 4 anxiety attacks a day and I didn't know how to make them stop.
Read more.... |
Program Highlight
The Coalition
Every community has its share of problems. In the final analysis, many problems are surmountable, a few are not, but nearly all feel overwhelming when an individual or single organization tries to confront the problem alone. At Family Continuity, we know the power of collaboration, of mobilizing interested community members, focusing their efforts, and solving problems, one step at a time. We do it every day with families, just like families do in their own lives.
Craig Maxim, the Family Continuity Whitinsville Mental Health Clinic Director, and others have taken this approach as they look at the challenges faced by their community in the town of Northbridge. The community, reeling in the wake of recent teen deaths, has decided to mobilize in a manner they describe as "long overdue", to create The Coalition. "The Coalition" is a new community group led by Craig, Sue Gorky, Northbridge Schools Superintendant and Bill Hodgeman, of the Pleasant Street Church, formed to bring together parents, students, educators, professionals, people from the faith community, and concerned citizens to identify and address student concerns. The group hopes to diagnose the critical problems that students in the Northbridge community face, and to develop strategies and resources to alleviate these concerns. The focus of The Coalition will be to unite the community, build relationships, and change lives, as it works together to create solutions to problems like bullying, depression and suicide, racism, and substance abuse.
As Craig recently related in a local newspaper article, "Northbridge is not unique to these issues and we find that many communities have had similar incidents, but we can be unique in our response. The development of a coalition in Northbridge will assist us in identifying not only the needs but begin to develop solutions. We invite concerned citizens to join with us in identifying our strengths as a community and how we can transfer those strengths into caring, action, and solutions." Adding, Bill Hodgeman, a local youth pastor, "As I talk to people in the community, I get the sense that this Coalition is long overdue. It's time to bring people together. It's time to have some difficult and necessary conversations, to come alongside of these hurting students and give them a voice, some help, and some hope,"
Following several meetings, The Coalition, with over 90 members, identified key concerns facing the community and has now established six taskforces to address some of the critical needs that have emerged including:
· Connecting needs and resources
· Strengthening Parents and Families
· Resourcing low income Families
· Bullying
· Substance abuse
· Depression/Self-injury/Suicide
They will meet monthly for the next year to develop collaborative strategies to address the need. To find out more about the coalition, see their website at www.northbridgecoalition.com, for the initial report, findings, meeting schedules, and related news articles.
The Coalition is currently supported by the Northbridge Public Schools, Family Continuity of Whitinsville, the Northbridge Association of Churches, the Whitin Community Center, People of Faith Against Domestic Violence, and a growing number of students, parents, and other organizations. |
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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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