Parent Project: Another Successful Year!

Youth and Family Services is pleased to announce the successful completion of YFS's 2012/2013 Parent Project© season. Parents, grandparents and other guardians are welcomed into either the Spanish or English parenting class occurring during the Fall and Spring of every school year. 

Parent Project is a 13 week class, meeting one evening per week, that is tailored towards parents of adolescents with destructive or out of control behaviors. Parent Project easily blends useful parenting strategies to reduce conflict in the home, increase communication skills, and improve relationships among family members.  Each class is conducted by certified Parent Project instructors Jody Montgomery and Anya Marquez.

In addition to the instructors, the success of Parent Project would not be possible if not for the support and facilitation of our interns Jessica Reid and Gretchen Kryss. These dedicated volunteers went beyond their "normal duties" and easily built supportive relationships with parents, giving their time and care to each person that came through our doors.  A special thank you to Jessica and Gretchen for their hard work, support, and passion for helping parents! 

Each year YFS interns serve more than 500 local children and families, and contribute over 18,000 hours on FUSD school campuses, and serve families at the YFS counseling offices in the Fremont Resource Center.

All are graduate students or post-graduates in counseling, clinical psychology or social work. Each is committed to volunteering a minimum of 20 hours per week under intense licensed supervision. Many of our counseling interns bring skills from previous careers (as behavioral intervention therapists, teachers, and more), as well as bi-lingual skills to better serve the Fremont community in languages such as Spanish, Mandarin, Hindi, Tagalog, and Farsi.

By improving the overall school climate, the YFS school-based counseling program benefits even the children who do not receive direct services. Intern counselors partner with principals and teachers to reduce classroom disruptions, combat bullying, improve attendance, and respond quickly to students in distress. Intern counselors also provide family therapy and assist with parent education classes and workshops to teach parents how to handle common concerns in childhood and adolescence.

YFS receives more than 150 applications every year for the 25 intern counselor placements. Fremont is fortunate to benefit from such talented volunteers. Thank you to the YFS intern counselors for your contributions to Fremont Families!

Senior Center Volunteer Luncheon

The Fremont Senior Center is extremely fortunate to have some of the best volunteers in the world. There are currently 160 volunteers who help out at the center on a regular basis performing such diverse tasks as preparing tax returns, teaching Tai Chi, directing traffic at our recent Expo, and performing as short order cooks for breakfast.  The age range is also amazing: 14 years old to 96 years old. There were 18,743 volunteer hours worked in 2012-2013, which is equal to $438,961 if these were paid employees. This is definitely a "win win" situation, as recent studies have shown that isolation is a sure way to decline mentally and physically as we age. We really need each other!

To honor its many volunteers, on April 30th, the Senior Center staff cooked a barbecue lunch and handed out gifts and certificates. Fremont Senior Center could not function as it does without the invaluable help of its dedicated volunteers!   

On June 15, 2013, the Fremont Human Relations Commission attended the Asian Pacific Islander Family Pride Banquet and congratulated members for the "Public Recognition of Private Courage." Laurie Manuel and Beth Hoffman on the HRC sponsored three seats at the event. 

The Asian & Pacific Islander Family Pride is a non-profit organization whose mission is to end the isolation of Asian and Pacific Islander families with lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender members through support, education, and dialog.

Congratulations to Aging & Family Services Intern Frishta Sharifi, and Youth & Family Services Intern Melanie Fang for their dedication and hard work as interns at the City of Fremont Human Services Department. 

They also received the Graduate Stipend Award of Alameda County Behavioral Health Care Services! 

Frishta graduated from Cal State University East Bay with a Master of Science in Counseling, and Melanie graduated from Santa Clara University with an MA in Counseling Psychology! We are so proud of them and wish them all the best!