The Ashland-based agency is using the funds at a Medford girls’ home
By Debora Gordon for Ashland.news
New York Life awarded Southern Oregon mental health nonprofit Family Solutions a $25,000 Community Impact Grant in late November.
Serina Pori, the Family Solutions development director, said, “The mission of the Family Solutions Agency is to provide mental health services and create opportunities for healing with children, adults and families. We serve Jackson and Josephine counties and have a variety of programs. We provide school-based counseling, and therapy inside the schools. We have a psychiatric day treatment program, Foster Plus, which is a therapeutic foster care.”
New York Life’s Community Impact Grant program awards grants of up to $25,000 to local nonprofit organizations that are championed by New York Life agents and employees. Since the program’s inception in 2008, nearly 800 grants totaling more than $11 million have been awarded to nonprofits across the country.
Catherine Greenspan, a New York Life agent and financial services professional, has championed Family Solutions. She has been volunteering and supporting the agency since 2020. This is the second New York Life Community Impact Grant she has advocated for Family Solutions. The previous grant, received in December 2021, was for $10,000 and was used for facility improvements.
Dorothy Provencio, Family Solutions executive director, said the $25,000 is being used to support the Ashland-based agency’s work to improve a girls’ home in Medford. The home serves up to nine girls, ages 12-18.
“We currently installing a security system on our second-floor window. The windows can be an escape route for the youths. They might want to take a break for the night. We have to have an egress; we are putting alarms on the window so they can open a few inches to get some fresh air; anything wider than a few inches would set off the alarm and it would alert us to a youth leaving out a window. Things can happen where the youths are very quiet and are trying to get out. They could potentially make a whole plan together of escaping through the windows. Once we got the grant, we put the down payment on the equipment, and now they installed the equipment.”
Pori said that “Families are given tools to address trauma that youths have experienced and be able to provide kind of a therapeutic environment in the home but then they also have access to our staff, 24/7, 365 days per year. We will physically go out to their homes, we check in regularly, to make sure that the youth is doing well, that the family is doing well, that everyone is, as much as possible, thriving. In addition to that, we also have a residential program in Medford, which is the program we received the grant funding for.”
Family Solutions was founded in 1971 in Ashland.
Provencio said, “We serve some very high acuity of youths; which means that their behaviors have caused them not to be able to be stable in any environment; in a home environment, in a lesser level of environment. We have had many successes where we have taken in youths, and they have gone through our program, graduated, and are now working and living in the community and have their own families, and that’s huge. That gives me goosebumps to think of the work that’s being done by the staff. Additionally, our school programs, our day treatment programs are there to support the youths and help them learn how to be in social environments and be successful in social environments.”
“Giving them skills so they can thrive in a traditional classroom,” was strongly emphasized by Pori. “A lot of times, we have students who come to us, who have never been told that they can be good at school, that that’s a place where they are able to be a part of it. I think helping them to see that that is true and with these skills and they can stand alongside their peers and see that they’re just as smart and just as capable. And helping them to not only hear that, but to really believe that is really profound. And our day treatment program, as far as I know, is unduplicated in our area.”
Provencio said the Family Solution residential program is one of the very few left in Oregon, with only about five remaining throughout the state.
Pori said the residential program is important “because it’s their home. When you’re coming from experiencing the things that our youths have experienced, and the struggling, going through different programs, and not being a good fit, (our) being able to offer a program, to know they are safe here…. We want to ensure that ‘you’re making good choices that are good for you.’ And that’s making sure the windows are safe. We’re helping to do that.”
Provencio said the program has acquired a driving simulator, which she describes as “helping individuals practice and master various vehicle controls such as steering, gears, and pedals etc. Using a driving simulator, individuals can deal with various potential risks and pressure that can occur while real-time driving on the road following the necessary traffic rules.” The more they can have a normal progression like everybody else, instead of being 19 and thinking, “Oh, now I need to get a driver’s license.”
Pori added, “It’s so exciting to be able to offer them a skill that they can take with them in their lives. It’s a message we are sending: We are invested in your health, in your safety and in your journey, to help them get to the life that they envision for themselves and helping them to see really what that might be.
“They might have had this idea from their parents, that might have only seen substance abuse, instability. To be able to see that there is an opportunity beyond that, I think is a beautiful gift, and so it always just a wash of gratitude when we receive the support from the community, when they stand beside us and say, these kids matter. They have so much to offer our community so how can we help them get there, because that is what they need, they have it within them. We help them to see that.”
Debora Gordon is a writer, artist, educator and non-violence activist who recently moved to Ashland from Oakland, California. Email her at debora.ashlandnews@gmail.com.
Feb. 9: Corrected New York Life name in two places. It is not abbreviated.
