Training Department Prep Course Successful For SHIELDS Employees

Did you know SHIELDS for Families offers its employees a FREE Clinical License Prep Study Group during work hours? The SHIELDS Training Department in conjunction with SHIELDS Clinical Coordinator Renee Becraft, hosted an 8-week study group that met 2 hours a week from 10am-12pm this past Fall. The group was designed to assist employees that completed BBS hours and were interested in taking the clinical licensing exam. CalWORKs Program Manager, Jonathan Ousley, LMFT, reported that "Renee structured the group in a way that reduced our anxiety about the test. She helped the group connect on a level that motivated us to support each other. The content was easily broken down and delivered exactly like the test. I think everyone that considers taking the exam should be required to take this course, it's that beneficial."

SHIELDS is happy to report that all 5 students in the group passed their licensing exams! Thanks to our Training Program Administrator Kim Medvin, LCSW for coordinating such a great resource for our employees and thanks to Renee Becraft, LCSW for your quality instruction that led to successful outcomes for the following group members and SHIELDS employees:

• Wesley Carlin, LCSW
• Kathy Eliassian, LMFT
• Brandon Hyatt, LMFT
• Stevon Lewis, LMFT
• Jonathan Ousley, LMFT

The next round of the study course is TBD - so if you're an MFTI or MSW that has completed your BBS hours and are interested in the next round of Clinical Licensing Exam Prep Courses, contact Kim Medvin kmedvin@shieldsforfamilies.org x2129 or Renee Becraft at rbecraft@shieldsforfamilies.org x2202

Keep up the great work SHIELDS!

SHIELDS' Joe Paul Advocates for Youth Offenders Re-Entering The Workforce

SHIELDS Jericho Training Center Program Manager, Joseph Paul, is in Tampa FL this week presenting to a group of grantee's from the Department of Labor that work with youth offenders. The presentation is a discussion on Workforce development services and reentry for "youth offenders" 18-24 years old. He is discussing "The Rules of the Game", which is an overview of the obligations and responsibilities of the `when evaluating criminal histories in background check for employment. 

He's also sharing promising practices that work to create a "felon friendly" referral process for organizations regarding employment services to recently released felons and their respective employment markets. The grantees are from 6 Cities across the country, who all work with offenders, pre and post release, just like our program here at Jericho. It is an honor to have our staff member invited to share the work we do here at SHIELDS and throughout Los Angeles. 

Shout out to Jericho, Joe Paul and CEO Kathy Icenhower - keep up the great work!

2013 Fruit Tree Giveaway Festival

Apply For A Fruit Tree: Visit http://www.sjli-cp.org/FTDP
Email: dsteele@sjli-cp.org / Call: 323.952.3466

As a part of the "100 Seeds of Change" food system Initiative, the Social Justice Learning Institute, TreePeople and the Inglewood Unified School District (IUSD) present the 2013 Fruit Tree Giveaway Festival hosted in the City of Inglewood at Morningside High School (10500 Yukon Ave Inglewood, Ca 90303).

On Saturday, January 26th, 2013 from 10am-4pm, with volunteer support from the UCLA Volunteer Center and non-profit DoGood, the Social Justice Learning Institute will host a day filled with numerous free activities that include a film screening, physical fitness training sessions, healthy cooking demonstrations, home gardening tutorials, music, a fun zone for the children all while giving 2000 families a FREE fruit tree. TreePeople will be conducting Fruit Tree Planting & Care workshops, ensuring the success of each fruit tree distributed.

The Fruit Tree Giveaway Festival is designed to empower community residents to take hold of their access to healthy, fresh locally grown fruit by growing their own fruit trees. During the day, three IUSD schools, Inglewood & Morningside High Schools, and Bennett Kew Elementary School, are also providing the opportunity for residents & volunteers to get their hands dirty by helping to plant fruit tree orchards on their campus grounds. Join us in our community’s continued effort in taking BIG steps towards greater access to quality, healthy, organic and culturally relevant food.

We need your help. Please assist us in spreading the word about this very exciting and innovative experience to the people in your network, your friends, family members, and neighbors. 

Online registration is now CLOSED... but you can still come to the 2013 Fruit Tree Giveaway Festival at Morningside High School (10500 Yukon Ave Inglewood, CA 90303) between 10am-4pm to try and register on site.

We look forward to seeing everyone on Saturday! Be Well!

"Free Cash For College" Cal Grant Workshop This Saturday 01/26/13

“FREE CASH FOR COLLEGE”
Cal Grant Workshop
Saturday, January 26, 2013

11:30am – 1:30pm
Inglewood High School | 231 S. Grevillea Ave., Inglewood, CA

1:00pm – 3:00pm
Washington Preparatory High School | 10860 S. Denker Ave., Los Angeles, CA

Get help to apply for a Cal Grant at these workshops

You may qualify for a $1000 scholarship**

Please bring financial documents such as:

• Your and/or your parents' federal income tax returns for the 2010 tax year (if filed)
• Your and/or your parents' current W-2 forms, paycheck stubs and/or any records of earned income
• Current bank statements and records of stocks, bonds or other investments

For more information, please call Darryn Harris at 310-412-6400.

**Limited funds available. Scholarships recipients randomly selected.

Website: http://www.asmdc.org/Bradford 
Email: Assemblymember Bradford

Capitol Office:
State Capitol
P.O. Box 942849
Sacramento, CA 94249-0062
Tel: (916) 319-2062
Fax: (916) 319-2162

Inglewood Office:
One West Manchester
Boulevard, Suite 601
Inglewood, CA 90301
Tel: (310) 412-6400
Fax: (310) 412-6354

Say Something

by Dr. Donny Johnson

I am a psychologist. A doctor, in fact. In my lives as a performance poet and television showrunner, it doesn’t come up much. And, frankly, there’s no need for it to. On a day like today—which does not seem like a day at all, but a gasp in time—I believe that it is a must to share my thoughts from the point of view of a mental health professional. In that capacity, I’ve treated children and adolescents, families, including survivors and perpetrators of crime. The curse of a good memory is that I house all of their stories. Still. The blessing of that experience, however, is being unafraid to help people look for answers in scary places. In an afternoon text to a friend—the mother of school-age children—I declared today “unspeakable.” I realize that I was quite wrong; today is a day when we must speak up. A man who slaughtered 20 children and their guardian angels has asked the children in our lives a question. They are counting on us to answer. Every child who becomes aware of this event will ask. Some will ask out loud, others with the brutality in their play, the vanishing of their appetite, the impossibility of their sleep. Some will ask by saying nothing in a room that still echoes their voice from the day before. Every child wants to know. Assume this. The worst question I’ve heard so far is from a child who asked her father: “Is this going to happen again?” Not one of us would want to fill such a small life with an answer so massive it threatens to explode her. Yet, this child is the voice of millions of other children today. “Make sense of this for me”, they plead. Tell me the world has order. And, that you, adult who loves me, know the code. Tell me that I am safe. That the day after this day will not make you cry as it swallows me. Tell me that I can be happy.

And, here is where we must not lie. Here is where we prove that we are worthy to take care of them. I would not accept the invitation to call this act “evil.” Evil teaches us nothing; it is an enormity, an inhumanity that does not impel is to do, but avoid. Rather, I would focus on the essentially human of this day. Before he was a man that we do not understand, he was a teenager someone did not understand, a child not fully understood. Misunderstood people sometimes do bad things. Being misunderstood excuses nothing, but can explain much that can help us help the other misunderstood among us before they attack our lives. Consider telling the children in your life that trying to understand people is an act of love, and that the more we practice this act—an art, really—the fewer people there will be in the world who want to harm others. Tell them that, unlike the bad behavior of others, they have full control of their desire to understand others. They do not have to be passive and wait for the next time the day implodes. They have control of their generosity of spirit, and that such largesse changes people. And, that changed people change others. Tell the children in your life that you do not know what other people will do tomorrow, but that days like today are rare. Tell them that you do not understand these rare days either, but that you know exactly what will happen tomorrow and every new day after. Tell the children who love you that you will love and try with all that you are, to protect and understand them every day of your life.
When tragedy corrupts the day, the children in our lives have questions.
We are the answer.

Donny Jackson
December 14, 2012

Watch More News Videos at ABC | 2012 Presidential Election | Entertainment & Celebrity News

SHIELDS Holiday Party 2012

Photography by Jake with AlbaVisuals

SHIELDS' Directors, Board, Development Department and Holiday Party Planning Committee would like to thank each and every one who attended our Annual Holiday party and helped make it one of the most ambitious and extraordinary affairs we have ever presented!

THANK YOU
We also want to give special thanks to Malcolm Cooper, Kelly Johnson, Stacy Mercado, Stephanie Moss, Phyllis Story, Kendra Wilkins, Jamaal Withers, SHIELDS Accounting Department, Executive Management Team, Angel at DJ Pro Events, Elena Morales & Hilton LAX, Jake with AlbaVisuals, Samay at Spring Flowers and Events, Laritha and Archie Shanklin Photography, Tony Livingston, David Whitman and Darrel Straight for all of you hard work and dedication into making the event a success!

SHIELDS Collaborates with Free Arts for Free Arts Day!

On December 1, 2012, SHIELDS' Family Support and PIDP programs, in collaboration with Free Arts for Abused Children, invited families to engage in various art activities including animation pictures, improvosational acting, NASA discovery, graphic design, and flamenco dancing! 

As you can see from the pictures below, we had a great turnout and everyone had a ball!We thank Free Arts and all of the participants for making the event such a success!