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December 22, 2008

New Year's Resolutions

Happy New Year to you and your families! Here at Discovering Options we hope to accomplish a great deal in the New Year, and to get the year started on a positive note, we have some resolutions:

To increase our number of friends on our Facebook page

To encourage and support parents whose children do not have IEP's but need them, to write the letters to the school to start the process.

To get more testimonials from the parents and children we have served

To move fearlessly into the realm of the capital campaign to identify the support that exists and to determine the resources needed to secure a building in which we can deliver PREP

To eliiminate our waiting list of children who want mentors.

From all of us to all of you: Have a happy and healthy new year!

December 05, 2008

A Little Time Goes a Long Way

Sometimes when I tell people about what I do, they seem shocked that I often visit families in their homes in poverty stricken neighborhoods or impressed that we are able to get so many families involved in our programs. They ask if I’m scared to go to people’s homes in “bad neighborhoods� or if the families we serve are abusive or neglectful of their children. Since I know that what we do may be outside of many people’s experience, I take this opportunity to educate them and give the families we serve credit for all their strengths.

In my experience with Discovering Options families over the last three years, overwhelmingly our families care deeply for their children and want them to do something positive, to have new opportunities, and to do something more for themselves. When I go on home visits, parents are welcoming and excited about their child participating in a new activity. They encourage their children and are proud when they come home with a new skill or a project that they did that day. They may not always know how to solve the problems that they are presented, but they are extremely resourceful and often come to our staff with questions about how to help their kids do better academically, socially, or behaviorally. Every day, our families continue to navigate a system that is often filled with obstacles and challenges in order to provide for their needs. Our kids and families are extraordinarily resilient, and giving them the opportunities that we do at PREP builds on their individual strengths and introduces them to a world outside of their neighborhood. I am glad when people are impressed at what we do; we work hard to improve the lives of the children and families we serve. But at the core of it is that we simply care, which is an easy thing to do. Every child wants to be important to someone. Become a mentor. Become a volunteer. A little time goes a long way in making a difference.