It’s hard to believe that summer has come to an end. We had a great summer with many things going on. I’ll highlight a few for you:
- 7 FAST TRAC staff, a parent and a youth attended the Georgetown Institutes in July 2014. This conference convenes System of Care staff, partners, youth and family members every other year. We had 2 GREAT keynote sessions. The first keynote speaker was Father Greg Boyle, Founder of Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles. His talk was absolutely inspirational. To learn more about Father Boyle’s work, go to http://homeboyindustries.org/ The second keynote session was with Kevin Hines and Sgt. Kevin Briggs. Kevin Hines is a suicide survivor and shared his story of hope and resiliency. Sgt. Kevin Briggs is retired from the California Highway Patrol and he shared his story of working the patrol on the Golden Gate Bridge to prevent suicides. For more on Kevin Hines’ story, go to http://www.kevinhinesstory.com/ and to watch a talk by Sgt. Briggs, go to http://www.ted.com/talks/kevin_briggs_the_bridge_between_suicide_and_life . We had a wonderful time with the youth and family member who attended the conference with us. Trent and Patty both wrote about their experience in the newsletter, so take a look.
- We provided two trainings in August, which were FREE to our community members. The first, Trauma Focused-Cognitive Behavior Therapy was a training for clinicians and provided an introduction to an evidence-based model they can use in therapy sessions with clients who have experienced trauma in their lives (maybe physical abuse, changing homes numerous times, living through a tornado, witnessing domestic violence). The second was Social Skills Interventions & Supports for Children with Special Developmental & Behavior Needs.
- We just began Year 6 of our 6 year grant from SAMHSA. We have been working diligently on evaluating our programs and providing the outcomes to our partners and the community through evaluation briefs. We have also continued to meet to discuss sustainability of the programs that have been implemented or expanded through FAST TRAC. While some programs may look a little different (i.e. a different way to access the service), the majority of our programs are still going strong and we are working to continue the programs into the future.
- The youth built a boat for the Cardboard Boat Regatta for New Richmond’s River Days. The boat made it part way down the river! Excellent work by the youth who built and captained the boat!
