(Alliance E-News Service) — The Village Network Receives Garden Therapy GrantAlliance member The Village Network in Smithville, Ohio, received a $15,000 grant from
Austin-Bailey Health & Wellness Foundation of Canton, Ohio, to put toward building a greenhouse and the purchase of items to expand the organization's horticulture therapy program.
The greenhouse garden will provide a peaceful form of therapy in addition to fresh, natural foods for children on the Boys' Village Campus. The boys who participate will plant, care, harvest, and sell the food and flowers of the garden.
Fifty percent of the proceeds from sales are returned to the garden project. A portion of the dollars are deposited into individual savings accounts for each youth in the garden program, and a portion is used to fund group activities.
Hillside Children’s Center Receives Excellence AwardAdoption Resource Network at Hillside Children’s Center, a branch of Alliance member
Hillside Family of Agencies in Rochester, N.Y., was awarded the national 2008 Adoption Excellence Award for extraordinary contributions in providing adoption and other permanency outcomes for children in foster care through its Adoption Support and Preservation (ASAP) services.
ASAP offers support services to TANF-eligible families who have adopted or are in the process of adopting a child. The service model employed by ASAP is the only one of its kind in Monroe County, and is unique to upstate New York.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services established the Adoption Excellence Awards program to recognize outstanding accomplishments in achieving permanency for the nation’s children in foster care awaiting adoption. The awards honor states, child welfare agencies, organizations, courts, businesses, individuals, and families.
Jim Doncaster, senior director of organizational development at Pressley Ridge, receives 2008 Lifetime Achievement Award. |
Lifetime Achievement Award Received, Secretary Visits Member
James Doncaster, senior director of organizational development at Alliance member Pressley Ridge in Pittsburgh, recently received the 2008 Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Re-Education Association (AREA).
Doncaster joined Pressley Ridge in 1975 as the first director for the Therapeutic Wilderness School in Ohiopyle, Pa. Between 1981 and 1987, he worked for the departments of Mental Health and Education, and later moved to Framingham, Mass., where he founded and directed Walden House, a Re-ED (Re-Education of Emotionally Disturbed Children) program for children who are deaf and
hard-of-hearing. Re-ED is a strength-based, family-centered approach for working with children and youth with severe emotional disturbance.
Doncaster’s work also includes presenting at conferences, authoring articles on Re-ED, and writing a chapter in Helping Troubled Children and Youth.
 Pressley Ridge was also recently honored with a visit from Portugal’s Secretary of State José Conde Rodrigues (pictured to the right, Rodrigues is shown on the left next to B. Scott Finnell, president and CEO of Pressley Ridge, on the right) and two of his close associates. Rodrigues was interested in learning about the United States Justice System and services to troubled children and youth in America.
Rodrigues visited Pressley Ridge programs on the Marshall Avenue campus to learn more about how the organization works with children and families. While visiting Pressley Ridge’s headquarters, he participated in a virtual tour of all the organization's sites and met with staff and board members.  |
