What Your Contributions Accomplished in 2010
Successful Children
At the Rapides Children's Advocacy Center, trained professionals interviewed 449 child victims of abuse or violence here in Cenla. All of the children referred for counseling received the counseling they needed, and all of the interviews deemed usable as evidence were submitted to the courts to assist in prosecution of the abuser. Tests showed that the children who received counseling experienced a measurable decrease in trauma and stress from their abuse.
In the CASA program (Court-Appointed Special Advocates), 301 out of 389 children who were removed from their homes for reasons of abuse or neglect received a trained CASA volunteer to advocate for the child's interest in court. These volunteers logged 6,233 hours in contact with their assigned children. Of 113 foster care cases closed in 2010, 104 resulted in a safe, permanent family placement.
You may not think of Hope House when you think of children, but this agency housed and served 62 homeless children in 2010. The agency provided over 325 individual counseling sessions, developing individualized plans for each child's progress. All of the pre-K aged children increased their knowledge of letters, numbers, colors and shapes, which are crucial steps for learning to read. Among school-aged children, 99% raised their grades in school! Half the children were referred for health care or dental care of some sort. Hope House helped mothers learn to be more involved in their children's education and collaborated with a variety of other agencies to get each child the help he or she needed.
The Louisiana Purchase Council, Boy Scouts of America runs values-education programs for boys aged 11-17. Youth learn leadership skills as well as a wide variety of practical skills that help them advance through several levels of achievement, building confidence along the way. The Louisiana Purchase Council operates 35 Cub Scouts packs with 1,214 youth and 240 registered adult volunteers. Older boys take part in Boy Scouts, with 19 troops, 335 youth, and 180 registered adult volunteers. Both programs are effective: 90%of the parents surveyed say that their sons gained important skills through Scouting. The Scouts make special efforts to reach youth from low-income areas, with 202 such youth registered in active units. Cub and Boy Scouting Program logged nearly 10,000 hours of community service, preparing them to become productive and successful members of our community. The Boy Scouts Learning for Life Program a co-ed character education program designed to support schools and community based organizations, registered over 1,400 youth, preparing them for the workforce.
The Girl Scouts of Louisiana-Pines to the Gulf help girls in grades K-12 learn leadership skills and a variety of skills to deal successfully with the world around them. Last year they provided hundreds of training sessions for adults volunteers ho mentor and teach the girls. Girls traveled to new places such as camps and museums to learn about the world beyond their own.
The YWCA offers a variety of programs to help children develop successfully into healthy, active adults. The YW-Buddies Mentoring Program matched 145 individual children with positive role models, serving 17 schools in five parishes. After-schol care and summer day camp provide ongoing opportunities for children to develop better social skills, do homework, and learn in a fun environment. The YW-teen program trains high school girls to be leaders through service, completing over 50 community service projects in 2010. 100% of the high school girls attended college and volunteered. Since the YWCA operated one of the few public pools in the area, they teach swim lessons to children as early as age three.
The YMCA quickly volunteered to step in when the Boys and Girls Club announced their closure in April. Working with United Way and the City f Alexandria, the YMCA began offering programs for children in the Sylvester Street location the next week.
The Volunteers of America began implementing the Parents as Teachers program in 2010, using funding from United Way. This program sends trained staff into the homes of high-risk mothers to help them learn to care for their preschool children. We are working with Rugg and Tioga elementary school neighborhoods in particular, hoping to increase the number of children who enter pre-K (age 4) ready to learn. We will report results as they become available.
The Imagination Library began as the dream of singer/songwriter Dolly Parton in her home county in Tennessee. The program is simple: it mails one age-appropriate book each month to a preschooler's home until the child's fifth birthday. The monthly arrival of a book just for the child generates excitement for reading, and it helps build a strong bond between parent and child. At the end of 2010, thanks to generous sponsorships for the program, over 1,100 children were enrolled from Rapides Parish and over 300 from Avoyelles Parish.
Strong Families
The Avoyelles Society for the Developmentally Disabled, located in Marksville, serves adults with disabilities, helping each one find his or her maximum level of functioning in the community. The agency operates the Silver Lining Pie Company, a bakery where at least 25 clients work at any given time of the day, learning work skills as they are able. In addition, 44 clients took part in other programs to help them learn other skills needed for more independent living. Some clients take the step of working in the community without a coach; others work in the community with guidance from a job coach. Most learn to shop for themselves and operate more independently.
The Family Counseling Agency provides several programs within its mission. The General Counseling Program helps individuals and families with depression, grief, parent-child problem, anger management, and other problems. United Way funding makes a sliding fee scale possible so that any family can afford to receive help. At least four out of five clients surveyed report progress toward resolving their problems. The Family Counseling Agency's Sexual Assault Center helped 623 victims of sexual assault last year. They also provided training to 131 other professionals who work with sexual assault victims. For example, the Center trains law officers in handling sexual assaults cases so that the victims are not traumatized by a lack of sensitivity on the part of police who respond to a call. 85% of the victims surveyed in the central Louisiana region rated the sensitivity of responding officers as either "excellent" or "good" comparing with only 65% outside our region. Nine out of ten clients surveyed reported a reduction in the symptoms of trauma from their assaults.
The Partners in Literacy Program merged this year with the Volunteers of America. This should free up volunteers and staff to focus more on developing the program and serving more clients. The program has 51 trained volunteer tutors and 65 adult students learning to read or read better. This helps the students do things that others take for granted: read street signs, read medicine bottles, get better jobs, receive higher pay at work, and learn to work with computers. For some children with homework or learn to read a Bible for themselves.
Reading Education for Adults Development's, Goals for Growth Program provided socialization training and literacy classes in three locations (Oakdale, Kinder and Oberlin) twice a week for 42 weeks. Students are made aware of areas where improvement will benefit them, so they can become part of the process. Most of the students are successful and advanced at least one grade level. Students increased their knowledge of proper behavioral skills and responsibility to function in the workplace increased by 95%.
Volunteers of America provided a, Pregnancy Services and Adoption program to young women facing unplanned pregnancy. Most clients are between the ages of 14 and 29. The agency provided free pregnancy testing and counseling. Those who are not pregnant receive counseling about healthy choices. If the woman is pregnant, the agency helps her get prenatal care and deliver a healthy baby. Some mothers choose to give up their child for adoption, and Volunteers of America matches the baby with adoptive parents, assisting parents with an adoption process in which all adoptions are legally finalized within one year. Volunteers of America also provides permanent housing for adults who are both homeless mentally ill. The agency helps such clients with a wide variety of activities to keep them living independently. Some clients are able to work; all who were in the program for six months or longer either increased or maintained their income. All who stayed in the program for at least one year made measurable progress on their levels of social skills. Progress plans are individualized for each client's situation.
Crisis Resolution
You probably could have guessed that the Salvation Army provided emergency shelter-7,168 nights of it. to be specific-to 498 men in 2010, along with 31,190 meals, but they did much more. Homeless women and their children received 276 nights of emergency shelter also. A day shelter gave access to 219 people for restrooms, coffee, and even a computer lab. Staff and volunteers held 485 meetings and life skills classes to help homeless and near-homeless adults stabilize their lives. Case managers interviewed 1,590 people to help them chart courses o stability. Of the many homeless men who stayed at the Salvation Army's emergency shelter, 37 men moved into a longer-term Next Step program, and 31 moved into independent living arrangements of their own. Of these, 28 received a stable source of income.
Hope House provides safe, longer-term shelter to help homeless women transition to independent living. In 2010, Hope House provided 8,317 nights of shelter and three meals a day to 121 homeless women and their children, fielded over 500 crisis calls, and helped all residents develop a personalized plan to get them on their feet. A full 95% secured employment during their stay, and all residents put a least 20% of their earnings into savings. The women all learned how to budget and manage their finances to help them stay independent once they left. Eight out of ten residents found permanent housing within two years of entering Hope House, and 90% of these took part in a follow up program after leaving Hope House to help them stay independent.
In a year without hurricanes, American Red Cross still served 629 Cenla disaster victims in 2010, providing them with clothes, toiletries, and temporary housing, depending n the family's need. Most of these were victims of house fires. In addition, the Red Cross provided 7 mass care responses to local flooding and storms. They helped 764 military families in emergency situations, something the Red Cross is uniquely qualified to do. They certified 5,420 people in CPR and First Aid courses, 686 in water safety and lifeguarding, and 231 instructors, all of which contributed to a doubling of the survival rates in Rapides Parish alone following sudden cardiac arrest.
The Turning Point Shelter for Battered Women is a program of the Family Counseling Agency. The shelter provides a safe place for women and children who are the victims of violence or violent threats from their significant others. Last year Turning Point sheltered 328 survivors and their children and responded to 3,819 crisis hotline calls. They worked with shelter residents and victims who never came into the shelter to help them develop safety plans for their particular situations, and they educated the community about the prevalence of domestic violence. Survivors learned ways to avoid further violence and increase their safety.
Together, united, we matter more
than we know.
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Program Admissions Form 2011 .doc [171K]
