Reminder -- green jobs breakfast series continues July 26

A reminder that Columbia Heights/Shaw Family Support Collaborative and Urban Solar Solutions are sponsoring a free series of breakfast meetings about all things green construction, workforce development, food, and transportation.   The series concludes July 29.   More information is in the flier.

Great news -- 10% discount extended for Solution-Focused training!

Just out from Columbia Heights/Shaw Support Collaborative:   The 10% discount on the Solution-Focused Brief Therapy training institute has been extended to June 14!   Now you can train with the best for less.   Go online today and reserve your space to train with Peter De Jong, Yvonne Dolan, and others on ways to use Solution-Focused in community-based settings.

Solution-Focused Brief Therapy: Creative Applications in Community-Based Settings is coming to Washington

Solution-Focused Brief Therapy: Creative Applications in Community-Based Settings is coming to Washington, DC June 29 – July 2, 2010

Leading thinkers and practitioners in the field guide attendees through workshops designed to build skills and knowledge and increase participant confidence in using Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT), an approach demonstrated to be effective when working with families.

Attendees can choose from a range of workshops on such topics as using SFBT in the juvenile justice and child welfare systems, with gangs and crews, and with young people aging out of foster care. Training institute attendees will be actively engaged in the event, asking questions, role playing, and challenging themselves and others.

So go to www.chsfsc.org to review the program and to register for this event featuring world renowned trainers.

Extraordinary learning opportunity planned for late June

You are invited to participate in an extraordinary learning opportunity:   Solution-Focused Brief Therapy: Creative Applications in Community-Based Settings.

This training features leading thinkers and practitioners in the field who will guide attendees through a number of workshops designed to build skills and confidence in this effective approach to working with families.   Those who should attend this event include:

• Social workers
• School-based counselors, parent coordinators, and teachers
• Social service agency personnel
• Professionals in mediation and restorative justice
• Juvenile justice and criminal justice system professionals
• Outreach and engagement staff
• Therapists and psychologists
• Law enforcement
• Youth/gang violence prevention and intervention staff

This training institute is being held in Washington, DC from June 29 - July 2, 2010.    Professionals from across the globe will convene to improve their skills and learn from their international, national, and local peers.

Solution-Focused Brief Therapy is inherently strength-based and holistic in the way it engages families.   While developed initially as a therapy model, it has transferred well to many different areas of community work.   Its combination of looking forward while helping people recognize their strengths and learn from their successes is a perfect fit for the development of family plans, street-level outreach, adult reentry counseling, job readiness training, and family group conferences.   The possibilities are endless!

Please consider attending this event – it will be well worth the effort.

Child Abuse Prevention Month Activities

Columbia Heights/Shaw Family Support Collaborative is hosting two events in honor of Child Abuse Prevention Month.   The first is being held on April 20 and the target population is parents and other caregivers.   This workshop will address a number of subjects related to children who are older than 5 years old.   The goal is to inform and equip families to address important issues.   This event is co-sponsored by the DC Rape Crisis Center.

Columbia Heights/Shaw Family Support Collaborative is also hosting an open house and panel discussion on parent engagement and empowerment on April 29 from 3:30 - 6:00 pm.   The target population for this event is school personnel and programs that work with schools and families.   More information is in the flier below.

April 2010 Child Abuse Prevention Workshop_English

April 2010 Child Abuse Prevention Workshop_Spanish

CHSFSCApril Open House Flyer

Learn to coordinate Family Group Conferences in April

Columbia Heights/Shaw Family Support Collaborative is offering a three-day Family Group Conferencing coordination training in mid-April.   Participants will:

• Learn the steps in coordinating an FGC
• Understand how to prepare family members and professionals to participate in a meeting
• The importance of planning for safety concerns prior to a meeting
• Practice skills through coached role plays and a mock FGC

Details, including cost and how to register, are in the flier, below.
FGCCoordinationTraining0410

Parent classes at Shaw/Garnett Patterson starting March 25

School’s not just for kids. . .

Columbia Heights/Shaw Family Support Collaborative's latest parenting class starts March 25 and all DCPS parents are welcome!   Details in the flier below.

Shawgpparent Classes

"Kojo In Your Community" live in Ward 1 February 23

Kojo In Your Community is back with live community-based conversations out of the studio and in the neighborhoods.   Kojo Nnamdi kicks off the latest series in Ward 1 on February 23 at 6:30 pm at All Souls Unitarian Church.   Word is that Penny Griffith, Columbia Heights/Shaw Family Support Collaborative ED, will be one of the show's featured panelists.   So go to All Souls for a lively and open dialogue about the issues of the day.   The live broadcast will be taped on location and aired on WAMU 88.5's The Kojo Nnamdi Show.

Neighborhood newsletter a collective project

The February edition of the Pleasant Plains Neighborhood Network News, itself a collaborative effort to "build an active, vibrant, compassionate and prosperous neighborhood that we will all be proud of", features several examples of collaborative, collective initiatives to improve the community.   One example is the story about the Georgia Avenue Community Development Task Force.   Another example is the article "How Society Impacts Our Youth. . . " by Courtney Steward (Mentoring Works2) and Del MCfadden (Columbia Heights/Shaw Family Support Collaborative).

The newsletter is produced with a small budget and distributed door-to-door to 1,300 residents and businesses by the youth of Mentoring Works2 and the ECAC.   Residents and businesses can help support this community newsletter in numerous ways.   Chek them out by going to this site to buy ad space or the ECAC to make a tax-deductible donation to the ECAC, noting that the donation is for the PPNN.

Solution-Focused Brief Therapy Training in March

Columbia Heights/Shaw Family Support Collaborative is offering an essential training for front-line staff:   Solution-Focused Brief Therapy.   The training will be held in March.   Details in the flier below.
SolutionFocusedMarchTrg

Green Team Takes Snowmageddon Down

For more than 20 hours during the recent snow storms, the Columbia Heights/Shaw Family Support Collaborative’s Green Teams took on the snow, clearing curb cuts, sidewalks, and bus stops.   More than that, though, Green Team members allowed people to get out of their homes safely, to connect with others, to help others.

Some of what the Green Team did:

• Saturday:   11 GT members targeted U street wheel chair ramps, sidewalks, and bus stops.   They put in five hours in blizzard conditions and cleared the ramps from 14th and U to 9th and U.
• Sunday:   13 GT members targeted Columbia Heights 14th Street corridor. The weather conditions were better and they succeeded in clearing wheelchair ramps, sidewalks, and bus stops from 14th and Spring Road to 14th and Park Road.   In the five hours on the job, residents and businesses complimented the team members on the job they were doing, the service they were providing, in the community.
• Monday:   Shaw from 9th and U Street to 9th and S Street and 7th and Florida Avenue to 7th and S Street was cleared by about 20 team members.   They cleared wheelchair ramps, sidewalks, and bus stops.   Again, lots of compliments from community members.
• Tuesday:   Many more Green Team members worked on Kennedy Street and Georgia Avenue.   The nearly 30 members worked for seven hours clearing wheelchair ramps, sidewalks, and bus stops.   Compliments were common from neighbors.   Representatives from the mayor’s office stopped by to observe these hard working individuals.   Ward 4 CM Muriel Bowser also stopped by.

Our hat is off to our Collaborative colleagues who braved the blizzard to make the sidewalks safer for us all!