Community Empowerment Mini-Grant

The Skagit County Child and Family Consortium is now accepting applications for Community Empowerment Mini-Grants.  Proposals should be designed to address adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) in Skagit County. 

Proposals requesting $500 to $3500 will be accepted. 

Due date:  January 13, 2012.

For more information and a copy of the Community Empowerment Mini-Grant Request for Proposal, click HERE.

Exposing the Myth: Consequences of Violence and Poverty on the Developing Brain

United General Hospital's Community Health Outreach Program and the Skagit County Child and Family Consortium are co-hosting a free professional development course: "Exposing the Myth: Consequences of Violence and Poverty on the Developing Brain."  

  

Course Description:

For many children, violence is a part of their daily lives. Whether on television, in music, in video games, at school, in the community, or in their own home, exposure to violence can impair emotional and cognitive development.   This interactive workshop will explore the consequences of exposure to violence and poverty on the developing brain. Participants will also learn strategies to help mitigate the consequences of violence and poverty, helping children to make appropriate and healthy emotional, interpersonal, and cognitive connections. 

 

Instructor: Cathy Gangstad, MPA 

   The Learning Consortium

DATE:  December 8th

TIME: 9:30am - 2:30pm

LOCATION: Crossroads Covanent Church, 351 Pease Road

Clock Hours available ----  Lunch Provided

Register Now!

Violence Prevention Events with Dr. Jackson Katz

Register for TWO Special Events

with Dr. Jackson Katz

Internationally recognized violence prevention activist, author, and filmmaker who is visiting Skagit County!

Film and Forum

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Lincoln Theatre, 6-9 PM   FREE ADMISSION
Pre-Register for Continuing Education Credits

Click HERE to register

Participate in a viewing of "Tough Guise" and engage in the forum with Dr. Jackson Katz.  School faculty, coaches, students, parents, and community members are encouraged to participate in this examination of popular culture, media and violence in the United States.

Professional Workshop

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

McIntyre Hall - Skagit Valley College, 9am -2pm

$20 fee - Registration Required, limited scholarships available

 Click HERE to register

School administrators and staff, policy makers, law enforcement, healthcare providers, and human service professionals will benefit from this highly interactive training and will leave with a plan of action for how to better address violence in their community.  Lunch will be provided.

Payment Information:

Payment (check or purchase order) will be accepted at United General Hospital, ATTN: CHOP, 2000 Hospital Drive, Sedro-Woolley, WA 98284

Scholarship Information:
To apply for a scholarship, click here.
 

 

CONTINUING EDUCATION AND CLOCK HOURS AVAILABLE AT BOTH EVENTS.

http://www.jacksonkatz.com/

Sponsored by:

Job Seeking & Job Success Skills with a Paid Work Experience!!

Below is information about an upcoming summer opportunity to for youth with a disability (504 plan, IEP, DVR eligible, etc) to gain job skills and participate in a paid summer internship.

Please pass this information along to youth (age 16 +) who might be interested.

  Registration contact information is below.

Job Seeking & Job Success Skills with a Paid Work Experience

WorkSource Skagit will present a summer youth “Job Preparation and Employment Related Skills Development” opportunity.  This program will include a combination of classroom training, computer lab work, employer engagements as well as a 60 hour work experience for each individual. 

This proposal can accommodate up to 10 youth with mild to moderate disabilities provided their referral source can help identify a potential work experience site with an identified job.

With a specific work experience (job site and job description) in mind, the following hands-on instruction will be provided to expose the job seeker to the entire process of applying, interviewing, working, receiving an evaluation, and adding the work experience to their resume.

Schedule will be as follows:

Ø  July 18-21, 9:00-12:00 @ WorkSource Skagit.  Participants will go through all phases of skill identification, resume/cover letter writing, application completion, and interviewing in preparation for their designated work experience.

Ø  July 25-29, August 1-5, August 8-11 @ work site for 20 hours/week.  Schedules may vary depending on needs of the work site.  Will include a mid-way evaluation meeting with a Workforce Coordinator.

                       

Ø  August 15-18, 9:00-12:00 @ WorkSource Skagit.  Participants will add new skills and experience to job search tools.  Further teaching on skill development and career exploration will help guide them to their next steps for employment opportunities.

POC: Catherine Kennedy @ 360-416-3516 or https://owa.unitedgeneral.org/owa/redir.aspx?C=8a4a5bd888b34b5da5699ec46768f09b&URL=mailto%3ackennedy%40nwpic.bellingham.wa.us

Please specify at the time of registration if accommodation will be needed and ideas for work site.

Applebees Support

Applebees has extended their support for SCCFC.  They are offering the Dine 2 Donate program to SCCFC for the third Wednesday of each month!  The funding we raise will continue to support SCCFC and the continuation of our Community Partnership Forums.

DATE: The third Wednesday of every month!
TIME: ALL DAY LONG!

LOCATION: Burlington Applebees

188 Cascade Mall Drive

  

Print out the flyer (click HERE for the flyer) and bring it with you and 15% of proceeds go to SCCFC!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To-go and Carside orders apply!  Just call your order it at 360-757-1414.

You must have the flyer with to for SCCFC to receive the donation.

  

To view Applebee's menu, click HERE.

  

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!

Let's Draw the Line

Here is the Skagit County Child and Family Consortium supporting the Let's Draw the Line campaign.

To learn more about this campaign, go to http://www.letsdrawtheline.org/

Applebee for lunch on April 20th!

DATE: April 20 

TIME: ALL DAY LONG!

LOCATION: Burlington Applebees

188 Cascade Mall Drive

  

Print out the flyer (click HERE for the flyer) and bring it with you on April 20th and 15% of proceeds go to SCCFC!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To-go and Carside orders apply!  Just call your order it at 360-757-1414.

You must have the flyer with to for SCCFC to receive the donation.

  

To view Applebee's menu, click HERE.

  

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!

Dropout Prevention - Local Solutions

 

When funding is short and programs continue to be cut, it's time to explore our local community resources and work together to solve this problem.  Please join the Skagit County Child and Family Consortium for our "Dropout Prevention - Local Solutions" forum.

During this forum, will explore the following topics:

• Dropout Rates - a brief overview of the problem and its impacts.
• The PASS (Pay for Actual Student Success) Act - an upcoming bill that will provide funding for schools to implement dropout prevention strategies.
• A Local Success Story -  Learn of one local district's program; how it started, lessons learned,strategies that have continued to improve their graduation rates, and tools could be replicated in other areas.
• Community Resources Available - Many community organizations provide resources to assist with school completion.  During the forum, we will highlight a few and provide information on several others.

  Please join us.

DATE: April 20, 2011
TIME: 9:00 - 10:30 AM
LOCATION:  Crossroads Covenant (351 Pease Road, Burlington)


REGISTER HERE

"Gangs Are A Symptom: Together We Can Heal" - Resource Roundtable

 

Last December, Fabian Debora of Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles came and spoke to us, kicking off our "Gangs Are A Symptom; Together We Can Heal" Series. Momentum has been building in our own Skagit Valley around cutting-edge prevention and intervention efforts. Our voices are being heard from Yakima to Olympia, in newspapers and evening television. Skagit is emerging as a leader in gang prevention.

Now, we invite you and all teachers, social workers, service providers and leaders in the community to continue to come together in this two-part workshop facilitated by Chris Hoke, local gang pastor with Tierra Nueva, and leaders with the Skagit County Child and Family Consortium.

PART 1:
 On Wednesday, March 23, we will hear some stories from gang youth in our valley whose lives have turned around, then diagram this life arc of a migrant child and gang involved youth, identifying where these lives most need us, and where they are slipping through the cracks.

PART 2:

Come the following week, March 30, to Tierra Nueva and build on this diagram of a gang youth's life: in roundtable fashion we will identify all resources, organizations, and relationships into a seamless network of prevention and intervention.

Come be part of Washington's new model for community collaboration...to win our youth back from gangs.

REGISTER NOW

Insights into Early Learning & the Brain

Understanding the "Brain Fuel" that Shapes How We Learn and Who We Are

You're invited to Skagit County Child and Family's Forum "Insights into Early Learning & the Brain" with Dr. Gina Lebedeva from UW's Institute for Learning and Brain Science. To register:

 

CLICK HERE

 

The exuberant learning that occurs during infancy and early childhood sets the foundation for a lifetime of learning.  Building on decades of basic research, we are now poised to integrate key findings across different disciplines, and apply converging principles to practice in classrooms, community programs, and everyday life at home.  There is now a more nuanced understanding of the "continuity of learning" that exists from infancy onward, where different "windows of opportunity" exist for optimal brain development in various areas of learning.  In particular, the last decade has revealed compelling evidence regarding how we can utilize measures of infants' and toddler's behaviors, brain and social environments to predict later skills, which in turn are directly linked to school readiness and social success.  Today, I will share some recent discoveries in developmental neuroscience that are not only revealing that the earliest roots of a person's cognitive and social characteristics start well before first words, but are also reshaping how we define the quality of environments for early learning, right down to the first relationships a child develops.

Speaker Bio:

Dr. Gina Lebedeva is the Translation, Outreach, and Education (TOE) Director at the University of Washington's Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences (I-LABS).

Dr. Lebedeva has experience as both a research scientist and a Speech-Language Pathologist. Her doctoral research explored language acquisition and relationships between speech perception, emergent language, early literacy and word learning in toddlers. Her clinical work focused on early intervention and infant mental health. With a foundation in evidence-based practice and coaching the caregiver-infant relationship, her areas of interest are in early social-emotional, linguistic, and literacy development.

Prior to joining UW, her research in psycholinguistics led to a magna cum laude BS from Cornell University, after which she managed the Language and Cognition Lab at Columbia University. Combining her interdisciplinary interests, she believes that by translating research on how early experiences sculpt the brain, we can better support children's learning, whether through policies, classroom practices or everyday interactions.

Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences Website:

ilabs.washington.edu

 

The Loss of a Leader and a Friend: Linda Nelson

With great sadness, I share with you that Linda Nelson lost her battle with lung cancer and the complications from cancer treatment on January 2^nd. 

So many of us are grieving and will feel the loss of Linda for a long time to come.  We can also take a look around our community and our lives to be reminded of the strengthen, commitment, and love she so generously shared.  She has forever changed lives for children and families in Skagit County for the better.

Linda Nelson, a 32 year resident of the Skagit Valley in Washington state, passed away on January 2nd, 2011, after a courageous fight with lung cancer. She was born on November 19, 1946 in Seneca Falls, New York, the daughter of the late Albert and Geraldine Nelson. She graduated from Mynderse Academy and Oswego College in upstate New York.
Linda will be greatly missed by her husband of 28 years, Paul Van Hine, her sons, Alexander and Joshua(Cindy Handel), and her grandson Grady. She also has two sisters, Lois(Robert Nies) and Margo(Larry Schmidtgall), and sister-in-law, Sherrill(wife of her late brother Karl). Linda also has many nieces, nephews, great-nieces and great-nephews of whom she was very proud.
Linda worked as executive director and manager of education and community-based coalitions and programs. Linda was also an active member of her community serving on the LaConner School Board, Boys and Girls Club Board, several Washington state programs and the Governor’s Juvenile Justice Advisory Committee. Linda’s life ambition was to give her all and strive to make a difference.
Calling hours are January 6th from 4-8 PM at Kern Funeral Home, 1122 South 3rd Street in Mount Vernon. Her funeral will be at the LaConner United Methodist Church, 601 South 2nd Street at 11:00 AM, Friday January 7th.

In lieu of flowers, a memorial fund has been established to help defray the costs of Linda’s lengthy illness. Checks are payable to: Linda 4 Life Memorial Account, and mailed to PO Box 285, Burlington, WA 98233.