While it was sadly our final year of the Long Beach Youth Home’s operation, I am pleased that we have transitioned our youth to appropriate new settings, reunified families, and have celebrated successful graduations. Our new Family Support Services have been added to our “Continuum of Care” programs to fill the gap left by the closure. We have moved forward with a plan for new, innovative approaches to strengthen families with the skills and resources necessary to build cohesion and confidence.
Through our experience, providing intervention-based programs such as parenting classes, behavioral health services and special education are ways to strengthen and sustain the family unit. Troubled youth need to receive services before they reach the state of being confined to a residential treatment facility. Although sustaining the family unit is a primary objective, our overriding objective is to assure that our children are placed in safe homes. To this end, ChildNet’s Foster Family Network provides quality foster homes for children who are victims of parental abuse and neglect. Our special education programs at Zinsmeyer Academy in Long Beach and Vista Ridge Academy in Monrovia continue to provide quality education to youth and we take pleasure in the increasing number of promotions and graduations. In addition to our own schools, ChildNet educational services are increasingly utilized in school districts throughout the region. Furthermore, hundreds of children and families are receiving comprehensive services through our Behavioral Health division where we continue to see significant improvement in behavior and academic performance.
Our goal is to provide intervention and support at the earliest signs of trouble in a child or family, when the chances of success are greatest. Access to services is often limited to those considered most in need. As a result, many who could benefit greatly from intervention are shut out, simply because they have not reached a crisis point. We have learned that it is far better to build up the capacity for successful living before it is lost, preventing the pain and devastation that result when families are torn apart.
Our vision for the ChildNet Foundation is that it will generate the private philanthropic resources that will allow ChildNet Youth and Family Services freedom from the restrictions of government funding, and enable us to focus solutions on the first indications of dysfunction and help individuals and families make seemingly small changes that can literally transform the entire trajectory of their lives.
On behalf of the ChildNet Board of Directors, ChildNet Board of Trustees and staff, please accept my sincerest thanks for your on-going financial support and interest in our important efforts to create a bright future to youth and their families. We look forward to greeting you at special events and other opportunities to strengthen our community.
Sincerely,
Robert Di Stefano
President / CEO
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