“Instead of trying to beat the odds, let’s change the odds.”

March 2010

The new decade is off to an amazing start at Family Building Blocks – we anticipate serving 100 more infants and toddlers this year thanks to two new grants. With 150 children on our waiting list, half of whom are under the age of three, this expansion is an incredible blessing.

The number of people calling us for help increased by almost 60% in 2009 over the previous year, largely due to the recession. We are all painfully aware, sometimes from personal experience, that family stress skyrockets in difficult economic times. To meet the requirements of these new grants, we must raise additional matching funds and provide more volunteer services. The community’s support will be crucial as we try to serve these new babies and their families.

When I testified at a legislative committee hearing during the recent special session, many questions focused on “How do Relief Nurseries know that what they do works?” Our response is twofold.

First, a short-term outcome is that 99% of the children who received FBB’s intensive prevention services last year were able to continue living safely with their parents; that is, they avoided the trauma and expense of abuse, neglect and foster care.

Secondly, we talked about the longer term implications of giving babies a positive beginning in their lives by supporting their healthy brain development. A physician from Madras reported that professionals can now predict by the time children are in kindergarten which ones will end up in the corrections system. Sadly, this early assessment is related to compromised brain development caused by abuse and neglect when children are less than 3 years old. The impact of this trauma can last a lifetime.

A quote that helps guide my work at FBB relates to this tragic situation impacting these innocent victims: “Instead of trying to beat the odds, let’s change the odds.” That challenge is what FBB addresses every day in working with children and families. We believe that every child deserves to enter kindergarten prepared to succeed, not headed for prison -- this is our vision, this is our charge!

A great year for our families

November 2009

2009 has been a great year for children and families at Family Building Blocks!

• 98% of the children in our intensive services were able to stay safely in their families, avoiding abuse, neglect and foster care.
• 100% of the children in our classrooms are current on immunizations and have a primary care provider.
• Over 100 businesses, churches, community organizations and individuals are providing holiday gifts for 271 of our families.
• 1,200 individuals volunteered over 14,500 hours to support our work with children and families.
• Almost 2,000 donors made in-kind or cash contributions.
• 23 children were taken off our waiting list and enrolled in our Therapeutic Classrooms. Unfortunately, we still have over 150 children on our waiting list for services.

Thanks to each of you for making a difference in the lives of children and families in 2009!

An exciting summer

September 2009

What a great summer – for me personally and for Family Building Blocks! In August, I was able to spend time with my four children, two in-law children and two grandchildren. This is especially remarkable since half of these family members live in Peru and San Francisco! Having time together always reinforces my appreciation of how valuable our families are and how blessed I am!

For Family Building Blocks, it was also an exciting time:

• 24 children “graduated” from FBB ready to learn in Kindergarten and Head Start.
• These graduates opened up 24 slots for children on our waiting list to be enrolled in Therapeutic Classes – serving the 250 families on our waiting is always one of our highest priorities.
• 7 parents are moving forward in their efforts to gain the skills necessary to become self-suffcient with GED certifcates and college degrees.
• 293 of our parents and children spent an evening having fun and learning together at AC Gilbert’s Discovery Village.

• All of our families were able to stay together, avoiding the tragedy of child abuse and neglect and foster care.

At the same time,it was a challenging summer for many. We received more phone calls from families needing help than in any previous 3-month period. The excruciatingly hot days challenged families living in small apartments with little ventilation or relief from the heat. Thanks to staff, volunteers and mentors, we responded with food, clothing, fans, and increased home visits whenever possible.

We know that there will be many calls for help this fall and we will respond to the extent possible. We are grateful to all of our supporters for helping make a difference in so many lives through your time and your fnancial donations. We urge you to join us in continuing these critical efforts.

Our Amazing Donors

August 2009

In the past several weeks we have been blessed several times over by our wonderful donors. A couple of examples:

This week, Keith and Sandra Martin purchased enough food to supply a week of breakfast meals for six families. The Martins also donated children’s clothing, a stroller and a car seat. Two weeks ago the Martins donated a week of dinner meals for six families.

Another donor searched the city for three box fans during the recent heat wave to help a FBB family cool their living space. This donor also supplied the family of six children with shoes appropriately sized for each child along with two car seats for the family’s youngest children.

These are just two examples of how caring community members help leverage our resources to serve families in need.

It's the solid foundation of community support that keeps us going

Summer 2009

I spent four days last week at a family reunion in Peoria, Illinois. It was spectacular in many ways, including a day of Midwestern thunderstorms with lightning and thunder rolling through for 24 hours.

As I watched “the Millenials” (my granddaughter, great nieces and great nephews) run around, I reflected on the contrast between their lives and those of the children at Family Building Blocks. The children at our reunion have just about everything “going for them” – loving families, access to health care, educational goals, food on the table, stable housing, nurturing friends, strong support networks, self-esteem, and resiliency.

These assets are what we are working to establish for FBB children. We are working with challenged parents to break the intergenerational cycle of child abuse and neglect which most of them have experienced.

As you can imagine, in these challenging economic times we are receiving more calls for help from stuggling families than ever before. But at the same time some of our funding is shrinking, including the loss of $100,000 in federal funding.

The encouragement that keeps us going during these uncertain times is the solid foundation of private funding that we receive from the community. We are indebted to our volunteers and donors for your commitment to keeping children safe and families together. What a positive investment in our collective future!

Sue Miller, FBB Executive Director

Responding to the economic downturn: Donors are key to keeping children safe

Spring 2009

In response to the economic downturn, our Board of Directors recently adopted the following “Principles Guiding Expense Reductions for 2009:”

1. Minimize impact on services to children and families.
2. To the extent possible, avoid reductions that impact staff positions. (This goal is directly related to the first priority.)
3. Work to sustain private and public funding.
4. Create community partnerships that result in provision of services to children and families at reduced cost.
5. Evaluate ongoing operational expenses for cost saving opportunities.

There are obviously two sides to the budget equation – expense and revenue.Since 85% of our expenses are related to personnel, we cannot achieve significant savings without affecting staff so for 2008-09:

• Wages will be frozen.
• There will be no employer contribution to the retirement plan.
• There will be one furlough day each month for all full-time employees to be scheduled on a day that there are no classes for children or parents.

The other side of the equation – revenue – is, of course, a critical part of our strategy. We are advocating at the State Legislature for continued funding of Relief Nurseries, recognizing that it will undoubtedly be at a reduced level. We are waiting to hear if there will be money in the federal stimulus package that might support our child abuse prevention work.

However, we fully recognize that the pivotal factors in determining how well our children and families will weather this storm are our individual supporters. Our private donors have guided us through economic downturns in the past and we are hopeful that you will be there for us again. Every donation makes a difference.

In rereading Jim Collins’ book Good to Great while flying to Peoria to visit my mother this winter, I was struck by this admonishment:“Retain absolute faith that you can and will prevail in the end, regardless of the difficulties, AND at the same time confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.”

While we are painfully aware of the economic crisis in our country, we are resolute that when our community emerges from it, we will still be strong. We have no choice – our children are depending upon us.

The Good, the Bad & the Tragic

Winter 2008

The GOOD – Actually, it’s GREAT! Our community is fervently committed to keeping children safe and families together. Private support for Family Building Blocks’children’s therapeutic classrooms, family home visits and parent training is alive and well. Thank you!

The BAD – I represent the ten Relief Nurseries in Oregon on the Budget Work Group that advises the Oregon Commission on Children and Families. We met on November 14th to discuss future state funding for programs that support high-risk families. We were told that we should begin planning on state revenues being reduced by $11,000 for the remainder of this fiscal year (from now through June 30, 2009) and being reduced up to 20%, or $110,000, for the 2009-11 biennium.

The TRAGIC – The timing of reduced state funding is tragic because it coincides with a dramatic increase in the need for our services. We have had more families call and come to FBB needing help in the past 2 months than in the previous 6 months! In very difficult economic times, drug abuse, domestic violence and child abuse always jump dramatically. We will do our best to respond to these needs, to prevent children from falling into the raging river of neglect and abuse.

Thank you for partnering with us in this effort to prevent tragic things from happening to innocent children.

A surprise visit from on "old" friend

Fall 2008