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Photograph by Douglas Rider
André Burnett, director of outreach and educational services for Social Advocates for Youth, goes to Sunnyvale schools to organize and teach parenting classes.
Program reaches out to troubled youth
By Jana Seshadri
A comprehensive and lengthy study by the National Center on Addiction and Substance abuse at Columbia University says about 13.2 million students ages 12-17 try tobacco, alcohol and illegal drugs annually. The younger a person starts drinking, the more likely he or she is to be injured while under the influence of alcohol, a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association finds. A report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that from 1991 to 2000, 31.5 percent of teenagers indulged in episodic heavy drinking, 16.8 percent in frequent cigarette use, 47.2 percent in marijuana use and 4 percent in cocaine use.
Research studies indicate that, to successfully tackle problematic issues that preadolescent children face, it is crucial to involve their families in the intervention program.
Social Advocates for Youth, a private, nonprofit agency established in 1973, has been providing services for youth and their families in Santa Clara County for more than 20 years.
"In partnership with the Sunnyvale School District and the Columbia Neighborhood Center, we provide a spectrum of services to the parents and youth in the Bishop and Lakewood Elementary School areas, which are feeder schools for Columbia Middle School," said Bea Lopez, executive director of the program.
"This program will be extremely beneficial for the city, as well as the neighborhood," said Linda Kim, site manager for the center.
Last year the group received a two-year, $175,000 grant from the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children's Health to be used for a program that would focus on children ages 9-13 and their families, she said.
"When a need was identified in the CMS area through the neighborhood center, we submitted a proposal for the grant and got it," Lopez said.
The preteen years--from 9 to 13--are critical for children, Lopez said. Through the Parents Promoting Youth Development program, the youth advocates help families deal with issues and concerns they face with their school-going children, she said.
The youth development program to promote youth development through family wellness and early intervention has three major components--family wellness workshops, Case Management and teen choices and challenges program.
"Our programs focus on the whole family," said André Burnett, director of outreach and educational services for the advocate group.
Parents and family members are invited to attend the monthly workshops, held at Lakewood and Bishop alternately, to discuss their concerns and problems with the group's counselors. According to Molly Thompson, behavior specialist and case manager at Bishop, the community meeting held previously at Columbia was sparsely attended.
"People might have felt intimidated so we decided to change the venue to Bishop," Thompson said.
Diane Farley of the Sunnyvale School District coordinates the state-funded Community Based English Tutorial program, which was started three years ago. Targeted toward non-English-speaking parents of Sunnyvale schoolchildren, the tutorial program teaches parents the English language using simple techniques in different levels of competency. Holding the parents' forums at Bishop is a good idea, Farley said.
"The Bishop school area has the largest concentration of English-learning families," she added. "Bishop also holds several other programs for parents, so they are already familiar with the school and, of course, Bishop has the space available for large gatherings."
Frances Dampier, in her fifth year as principal of Bishop, has taught in Sunnyvale schools for 23 years. Noting that her school parents had difficulty helping their children at home, Dampier spearheaded the effort to start the tutorial program in Bishop.
"We have safety nets around our children when they are in school," she said. "But when they go home, some parents are not able to help their children."
According to Dampier, the tutorial program's well-received language classes would help parents communicate with their children and other adults and the parents' forums and community sessions would help with their parenting concerns and issues.
The first parents' forum was held March 6 at Bishop from 6 to 8 p.m. The school provided an activity/childcare area for slightly older children during the forum.
Burnett explained to families the importance of working as whole units while dealing with children and their issues. Families are required to attend the counseling sessions along with the child, he said. It's important to know what's going on with the family--at home--while determining what's going on with the child.
The CASA SAY group home, drug abuse/truancy prevention, school liaison/mentoring, independent living skills, safe place and youth and family counseling programs are just a few of that the youth advocate group offers families, he said.
Translators were able to translate Burnett's information on the group's programs for youth and parents into Spanish. "We have Spanish, Tagalog and Vietnamese translators," Burnett said. He said payment is usually dealt with six or nine months after services are rendered, so no upfront costs will be incurred. Since families are charged using a sliding scale, and, based on their total household income, they end up paying only 10 to 20 percent of a single month's salary, he said.
Topics include anger management, conflict resolution skills, developing self-esteem, and effective discipline. Early signs of substance use or abuse will be subjects included at future meetings, he said.
Parents brought up their concerns about drugs and gangs while at the meeting. Convincing a child that a counselor could help him or her with a problem is very difficult, a parent said. Children might feel uncomfortable or intimidated about involving an outsider with family issues, another added. Burnett countered that in this type of situation the mentoring program could be very helpful.
According to Kim, the case management program at Columbia was expanded to Bishop and Lakewood through the youth advocate group's grant by facilitating the addition of a caseworker--one for each school. Case managers develop a rapport with their school children and help identify their concerns.
Dealing with children, especially those with behavioral problems, can be tricky, Thompson said. While observing a child at work and play, Thompson said she watches for behavior patterns and "specific" problems first before discussing them with teachers or parents. The case manager makes home visits; assesses the individual child and the family; educates the whole family about issues like substance abuse and truancy; and provides them with referrals to community resources.
Through a confidential survey regarding health and self-assessment compiled by Kaiser Permanente and administered at Columbia, the Teen Choices and Challenges Program identifies assets and risk areas of youth and links them with the appropriate group services, Kim said.
Quite a number of schools in Sunnyvale benefit from the group's wide array of youth and family services and the word is spreading.
"Other schools are expressing interest in having parenting and youth sessions," Burnett said.
Social Advocates for Youth is located at 1072 S. De Anza Blvd., Suite A-208, and can be reached by calling 408.253.3540.
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Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
