Teacher Peddles Around the World to Help Foster Care Kids

As a substitute teacher, Christine “Chris” Farrugia always rode her bike to her school site. At age 56, she has decided to peddle just a little farther to raise awareness of the needs of vulnerable children. Beginning December 1, Chris will kick off her one-year ride around the world in front of Hillsides.

I met Chris when she came to tour Hillsides and explain to us what she wanted to do. Chris explained that after her parents and brother died in a car accident, she felt alone and was left with a desire to do something to make a difference. She thought about how foster children or orphans must feel when they are no longer with family, which is how she decided to raise money for organizations that offer services to children in need.  Through Chris’ family tragedy, she believed that ordinary people do extraordinary things every day even after they have walked through situations or ride through storms. Unfortunate events test our human spirit.

So many of the vulnerable children and families we serve have experienced trauma, in one form or another. Their human spirit is tested and sometimes feel they are alone. They don’t know what steps to take and don’t know who to turn to. When they come to Hillsides or we reach out to families, our staff provides the quality care, expertise and talent to strengthen their spirit. Volunteers take their time and talents to give generously through hands-on activities, mentoring or funds to help us restore hope in their lives.

It’s a simple message from Chris: If you have a passion or a talent, no matter the circumstance, you could do something to make a difference. Just get out there and do it. Keep putting one foot in front of the other. And that’s exactly what she’s doing and I have seen our staff, volunteers and donor community put one foot in front of the other.

Although the journey can appear daunting, Chris’ positive energy, enthusiasm and commitment are infectious. I am excited to have been chosen as the charity in America to join Chris on her journey. She is funding the world cycling tour with her inheritance and welcomes sponsors to host her campground stays, weather permitted, or hotel accommodations. Eighty-five percent of the proceeds from the ride will raise funds for Hillsides and Good Shepherd Centre Orphanage in Zimbabwe, Africa, the other charity she has chosen.

On her recent visit to Hillsides, Chris explained the mission of Project Miracle Co, the charity she established to raise funds for other deserving children’s charities. “I wanted to help the wheels that were already in motion.” While touring our campus, Chris said, “I feel this is the right place to do this—like I’m home.”

Like Chris, I believe Hillsides is the right place to volunteer, do something, and help the most vulnerable in our community.

A Culture of Quality Care

I’ve mentioned in the blog before that Hillsides is seeking a national accreditation with the Council on Accreditation in New York. Although we are currently accredited by the California Alliance of Child and Family Services, a decision was made last year to pursue a national accreditation to better position Hillsides in an increasingly competitive and demanding environment. Although we have been preparing for the accreditation for several months, we have now begun a yearlong process that hopefully with culminate with our accreditation, just in time for our centennial celebration.

As part of the accreditation process, our efforts to continuously address improving the quality of care has been strengthened. A specific committee has been charged with reviewing all our efforts to assure quality services. A  Board committee will review these efforts, which engages not only all levels of staff, but will also solicit input from our many beneficiaries. More than anything else, what we want to reinforce is a culture that values the finest care for the most vulnerable.

In a previous era, it was satisfactory to talk about the good that was being done and point anecdotally to the impact that was made. Today, that is just not good enough--not good enough for those we serve and not good enough for us as an organization if we strive to be a provider of choice.

Hillsides has every reason to be proud of the quality of care it provides the children, youth and families we serve. But like any other organization, it is easy to be satisfied with what we have done or what we are doing without necessarily taking a critical look at how services are delivered and what the true impact is as a result of the care that has been received.

Some argue that it is difficult to measure the impact; there are too many variables out of our control that influence the outcome. Although that may be the case, it is still not an excuse for us to maintain a critical eye on what we do to assure that all we do is the best. Providing quality care is the greatest tool we have to counter those unforeseen variables that impact the lives of those we serve. In doing so, we can influence the outcome.

As I often say, we can never do enough for those we serve. So it is with that desire that we embark on this process with every hope that it will strengthen us as an organization. Further, cultivating this culture of quality care will enable us to fulfill much more effectively our mission of providing a safe “place” for all we serve.

Resiliency

One of my favorite activities is to walk around the campus and check in on some of the residents who may be in crisis. At times, these children are highly agitated and unable to really interact. Inevitably over time and with the fine care that they receive from staff, you see their behavior improve and demeanor change from being withdrawn to engaged. Just the other day I visited with one of our residents who was supposedly on “independent study,” but actually on a suspension from the public school she attends. She sat with a staff member, withdrawn and indeed defiantly refusing to do any school work.

Today as I did my rounds, I am happy to report that she was actually doing some school work and interacting well with staff. What a difference a few days can make; often the progress is slow but with each day, this young girl will improve and eventually return to school.

The one thing that always encourages me, in spite of the many challenges we confront to provide services to vulnerable children and families, is their resiliency. Over and over again in more that twenty years working in child welfare, I see children respond to the services offered to them and rebound to be able to move beyond the trauma or crisis to be well functioning individuals.

Like the children and youth we serve, it is important for us to be an organization that is resilient.  Recently, I attended a workshop sponsored by the Child Welfare League of America entitled, “Building Resilient Organizations.” Organizational resiliency is defined by how successfully we adapt to change. In an environment where there are numerous factors impacting how we operate, it is important for us to be able to accommodate multiple stressors while not losing sight of our mission. We also must be resourceful in order to address challenges successfully, and from constraints, identify solutions and opportunities. This agility and innovation ultimately must be reflected on how we organize ourselves to be most effective, shedding, if necessary, structures and systems that no longer serve well.

In almost a hundred years, Hillsides has been very resilient, adapting and changing while never losing sight of its mission to be a “place” for children, youth and their families to be restored to well being. Like the children we serve, success is determined by how resilient, agile and how resourceful we are.

Help Hillsides Youth Moving On Win $25,000 with Your Vote

In celebration of its 125^th anniversary, Mercedes-Benz will be donating $125,000 to charities; five beneficiaries will receive $25,000 each. Elizabeth Rusnak of Rusnak Auto Group offered us an opportunity to participate in the Mercedes-Benz Community Stars Dealers Give Back program for a chance to win $25,000.  With help from Stephen McDonald, our board member, and his colleagues, we produced a sixty-second pitch that we submitted. We are excited to announce that our Hillsides Youth Moving On video has been selected as an official semi-finalist!

We chose to address youth empowerment through Hillsides Youth Moving On. When foster youth turn 18 they emancipate from foster care. With little to no support, 40% of former foster youth end up homeless within 18 months after leaving care.  There is little support for transitioning successfully into adulthood. Hillsides, a charity creating safe places for vulnerable children and families, established Youth Moving On in Los Angeles. We did this to combat the daunting statistics that will eventually affect 500,000 children in foster care today. We did this to create hope and help those vulnerable youth who want to receive help and have no where or no one to turn to.

Over the course of several hours, five YMO residents participated in the filming along with Thomas Lee, YMO director. The opportunity to participate in the contest is not just beneficial for us, but for the youth to know they can make a difference in the direction of their lives and others who need help and want it. We should all feel proud of the work they did to make the video a compelling pitch.

So how can you help? We have been placed alongside 14 other deserving submissions on the Mercedes-Benz Community Stars Facebook page (http://on.fb.me/qRkvWN) for the general public to vote on it. The five $25,000 grant winners will be determined purely by the number of votes they receive.

Help us by making sure you make an announcement to your Facebook wall asking your supporters, friends and family to vote for us, Hillsides Youth Moving On, on the Community Stars page using the link above. Here are some other ideas:

• Add this link/language to your e-mail signature: Vote for Hillsides, a charity I support, to win $25,000 in the Mercedes-Benz Community Stars Contest: http://on.fb.me/qRkvWN
• If you have a Twitter feed, or use other social networks, post the following: Vote for @Hillsides children’s charity to win $25,000 in the Mercedes-Benz Community Stars Contest: http://on.fb.me/qRkvWN
• Add to your E-mail blasts and Web Site Home Page
• Please forward this blog to your family and friends so they, too, can help us win $25,000

Hillsides now has a 1 in 3 chance of winning a $25,000 donation from Mercedes-Benz since we are in the Youth Empowerment category. Thank you for taking the time to find this a worthwhile cause to spread awareness of this video and for sharing your votes with us.