Transcripts For WRC Viewpoint 20150830

I really appreciate it. This is an exciting time. A lot of work. I appreciate you taking time out of your schedules to talk to us. As children, parents ramping up their days or months to try to get back into the flow of getting back to school, its important that really our kids have everything that they need to start the school year, but thats not really a reality for a lot of kids in the area. And its a stressful time as well. Stressful for kids. Stressful for parents. Whether because, maybe the fact that they dont have the supplies that they need adds to that. Can we speak to some of the stressor, pressures as parents and kids in the area are going through right now as they prepare to go back to school. When you think about teens thats such a vulnerable time and these young people are struggling with so many issues. Returning to school not having their routines yet. They are struggling with anxiety, with stress, with depression. Some are contemplating suicide. As teenagers. As teenagers. Some are dealing with issues around coming out. Family challenges. Eating disorders. Selfinjury. Theres just so many areas that this Vulnerable Group is struggling with. So going back to school, is that not are they not comforted by the fact that they are starting some type of a pattern, some normalcy, a schedule every day, seeing their friends. Doesnt that help the situation . It will but initially its hard because they dont know what their new routine and rhythm will be. Theres so much social anxiety with these people. They care so much what their peers think. In a few weeks they will have settled in. This inshow going back to school is a tough time. Would you like to chime in . I agree. Finding normalcy that these kids lack and having stress at home and not knowing what will happen at school is very difficult. And not wanting to stand out amongst their peers. They want to fit in like everybody else, have the new clothes and have the school supplies. Piper, what is normalcy. What does that look like . Is that a case by case basis or what does back to school normal look like for kids in families that need the most support . Well, i would agree that theres a tremendous increase in anxiety. So you really have to address that and you can do that in different ways. You can have your child visit the school ahead of time. Meet the teacher. Go through the routine, those sorts of things to begin to decrease that anxiety. And you may see it manifest it in different ways. You may see meltdowns or outbutters or more inward kind of behaviors. So you got to be thinking about that and preparing for that and i think as a parent you have to realize that you may see some of these changes. And stay calm. Reach out for support. Reach out for help at the school and in the community if you do have concerns. I want to mention very quickly you all have a program coming up, a campaign, minds matter. The mindsmatter. We have a couple seconds left in this block. If you go to our website, you can learn how you can take the pledge for mindsmatter so you can engage with us in Suicide Prevention, improving Mental Health, take a stress test, get your family and friends involved. Were gearing up for Suicide Prevention week. Youll find out how you can join one of the Suicide Prevention walks online as well. Were far from done. Stay with us. We have much more coming up about our most vulnerable children. Welcome back to viewpoint. Im erika gonzalez. Joining me this morning three ceos of local nonprofits that really have their finger on the pulse in this community with family and children that need help getting back to school and starting off successful. I want to thank you for joining us again. Donna fortier with mobile home, Wendy Gradison with, ceo of trs and Piper Phillips, phillips programs for children and families. In this area there is something pretty different. I thought what is this . Theres an actual bus in Loudoun County that really helps service the needs of children that are homeless or at risk youth. Donna tell me about this. It stemmed from a need, a transportation difficulty that many of our families have. So mobile Hope Services are for children and young adults 24 years of age and younger who struggle with every day food, clothes, hygiene, school supplies, prom dresses. While we have a location in leesburg that allow kids and their families to come in and shop a lot of families were struggling with transportation. So we take our mobile unit, our bus out every wednesday night to different locations throughout Loudoun County and we serve anywhere 50 to 90 kids and we do the same thing that we do at our facility in leesburg but on the bus, clothes, hygiene, school supplies. We partner with businesses that will come in and cook hot meals or nutritious meals and its very humbling to see the families that come to us and the kids. 50 to 90 kids every time you do this. On a monthly basis you are seeing the faces of at least 500 kids . On average. 300 to 500 kids who come to mobile help. What does that mean precariously housed. What does that mean . We work under the mckinney definition of homelessness they dont go the same stable home environment every night. It could change. They might be doubled up with five or six other families. They might be couch surfing, living in their cars, shelters. How do they find out about mobile hope . Wordofmouth. And we have great relationships with a lot of the other nonprofits in loudoun so we get a lot of referrals from social services, from the Faith Community particularly the school. The School System identifies kids who are at risk and sends them over no bill hope. They are getting everything from backpacks now that were starting school again, backpack, pencils, clothing that they wear. Shoes. Everything. Perfume. Makeup. Because even those things, even the deodorant, perfume is important, is it not, to help build up a childs selfesteem as they transition into back to school. Absolutely. I mean its vital. Yeah. Wendy, tell me about the service that you all provide with trying to really meet a need in this community . Absolutely. Well weve been around is in 1963 providing services and support to folks recovering from mental illness, Substance Abuse disorders, asperger disorders. We have a line for anybody. So people can have a routine in their community. Going back to school, going back to work. Piper your organization is not just dealing with the kids but youre seeing families as a whole. Youre seeing the parents as a whole and that really has to be, you know, strike a chord with your heart when youre listening to moms and dads that are saying look im struggling and i dont know how i can get my kid into school with what they need. Right. Right. Well, we have several different programs. We have two programs. Special education, and a day program. They serve the entire metropolitan area. We have a fairly robust education for Employment Program in our high schools along with program called Building Futures where the students are building a house in annandale and doing very many Major Repairs and renovation. We have partnered with mobile hope with some of our students who have had precarious living situations out there. And then we have another program called Family Partners where we provide intensive Home Based Services with the idea being that the family needs some kind of support to keep that family intact. So we assess the family, build on their strength, help them create the resiliency to be able to function more comfortably. Piper phillips thank you so much very much. Well be back in a minute. I want to touch on the subject when we return about parents and children with special needs or challenges as they go backtoback to school. Well see you in just a minute. Good morning and thanks again for joining us on viewpoint. Im erika gonzalez. Were talking about going back to school make being sure all of our kids but specifically our children that really need the most protection and provision off to a great school year. But there are parents and children that really face extra hurdles when they go back to school because they may be facing some type of challenges or hurdles, children with special needs. Piper, tell me a little bit about your work in this area, and how their needs differ from anybody elses . This is an extra stressful time really for those families. Right. Well the children that we serve have social and emotional behavioral disabilities that are impacting their being successful in other School Settings so they are coming to us and were work with them in a variety of different ways, counselors and different staff that support them and support the families as well. So, for example, you may have a student who is so anxious about coming to school that he will not ride the bus. That puts the extra pressure on the family to get that student to school, which may impact getting to work on time. Right. You know, a lot of stressors there. And then when they get to school they may have difficulty getting in and so we have to work very, very closely with that student and with that family in terms of breaking that down into very small steps. It may take days, it may take a couple of weeks. We had one who was not getting on the bus, dad was bringing him in, then he wouldnt come in the building, then we got him in the lobby. Thats all from an it . Thats all from anxiety, yes. Yes. And then staff created some jobs for this young student to do to get him engaged and into the building and involved, so it was all very positive but it took some period of time and a team effort be able to figure out what was going network with this student and allow him to get into the classroom and work on various things that he needed to work on. Cad mix. I want to stress the social and emotional skills that all of the kids happen were talking about need so much. There was just a study from the National Center for learning disabilities that from youth them sales whats the most important skills its the social emotional skills and the emotional support. One in five children have some type of Mental Health disorder in any given year. The reality is that there are many children that need a lot of different kinds of support. The families, the parents and families need that as well, and they need to give themselves a break as well as they navigate through a difficult time. And the beginning of the school year can be more stressful because of the anticipation of things being different. Wendy, let me ask you about this. When she talked about how children relate and kind of like social norms for them, nowadays texting is becoming increasingly popular and for a lot of our kids its just the way they communicate. You know, they much rather send you a text than they would a phone call and youre nonprofit really has something very creative here in how to address a need with teens that really need extra help that may not be able to see a counselor, call a counselor but they can text. Exactly. We know any of us that have teens in our lives they dont want to use the phone, they dont want to use mail. They want to text. Teenagers text an average of 50 to 60 times a day. We created a year ago a text connect so that young people no matter where they are, no matter what they are involved with, if they need Additional Support around any issue they can text us and find a very helpful texter at the end of the line to help them navigate, empower them to develop healthy solutions. Who is on the other line . We have a Wonderful Group of highly trained volunteers at our peer crisis link callin tech center of and staff who are specifically trained network with folks who are dealing with these kinds of problems. We started the text line about a year ago and since then weve had 6,000 conversations and over a quarter of a million texts. Youre kidding. From this area . From this area. Northern virginia, d. C. Area. Wow. We offer this in concert with the fairfax Public Schools and community Mental Health center in northern virginia. So theres a need here and this service being provided children, teens are taking advantage of it. Absolutely. They tell us its incredibly helpful to them. All right. Wendy thank you so much. Well be back with more viewpoint after this. Do you like the passaaadd . Its a good looking car. This is the model rear end event. The model year end sales event. Its year end its the rear end event. Year end, rear end, check it out. Talk about turbocharging my engine. Youre gorgeous. What kind of car do you like . New, or many miles on it . Get a 1000 volkswagen reward card on select 2015 passat models. Or lease a 2015 Passat Limited Edition for 189 a month after a 1000 bonus. Welcome back to viewpoint. Im erika gonzalez. Were talking about going back to school and talking about our students particularly the ones most vulnerable off to a great and successful start. Our panel, thank you so much for joining us. You all run these incredibly successful Nonprofit Organization but before that you are moms. So i want to pick your brains as moms about the tips that you would give. Youve had your run at it. You had your kids. Whats worked. What are some of the biggest suggestions you have to help get people back to school, transition well, transition as seamlessly as possible . Well, there are quite a few. I think one of the more important ones is that your kids are getting a good nights sleep. Oh, bedtime. If you have the opportunity before School Starts to begin to make bedtime a little bit earlier and getting up in the morning a little bit earlier and starting to move towards that School Schedule thats going to be really helpful. A lot of parents will say i just want them to maximize on the summer and let them enjoy the last weeks that they have. You know, is it really doing a service to them sore it a disservice and just litting them ease back every night 15 minutes earlier and 15 minutes before that and 15 minute before that. If they are going to bed at midnight and have to get up at 6 30 and they dont start easing back they are starting off at a disadvantage because theyve not had a good nights sleep. Being consistent is key to so many kids being successful with that. Another one that i particularly like is one we call a text break. Kids on social media all the time. They dont want to miss out. Coming home. Time to do homework. And the phone is dinging. The computer the dinging. We recommend something called a text break. So you, depending on the age of the child maybe they work for ten minutes or 20 minutes or 45 minutes on their homework. All of their devices are off. But then they get a break. Its a text break. They can turn their devices back on. Check their messages. Check whats going on. They know they can do that. That reduces the angst about i cant function without my phone on type of thing. They are having a meltdown because they are not talking to their bff. What about homework. Should there be a designated time . It is as soon as you get home . It is right before you go to bed . When is the happy medium. It differs. Its a family choice and one that you want to have the student involved in because they know what their energy level is like. Some kids get home and they need to get outside and run around. They need a break. And let it all hang out and then can come back later. And, again, it depends on their age and how long that homework assignment is going to be. Wendy, what has worked for your kids . If kids have sports after school or events after school that determines. What about lets talk lastly just about kind of easing the anxiety for students and for parents, really. I think its for parents as far as meeting the teacher, seeing the school before the first day . Right. If there are concerns, if its a new school or a new teacher, then call and make an appointment and stop by, visit, introduce yourself. Open up the lines of communication. Understand whats the best way to have conversations with the teacher, emailing, for example. And talking about strength of your child. Setting a nice tone. Few seconds left. Sometimes parents are the very first to observe that their child is challenged. They are having difficulty. They are anxious. And so what i would encourage parents to do is if their young child is not ready to reach out to a text line or hotline that the parent do that. The parent go ahead and text or call us. So that they can learn more about,000 help their child move forward. Ladies thank you so much for your expertise. We appreciate your time. Donna fortier with the founder of mobile home. Wendy gradison ceo of prs and Piper Phillips ceo of phillips programs for children and families. Im erika gonzalez, thanks so much for joining us on this viewpoint. Welcome to fort green sheets. Welcome to castle bravestorm. Its full of cool stuff, like my second in command. And my trusty bow. And free of stuff i dont like. 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Were twins, so could you give us two for the price of one . Come on, give us a deal. Look at how old i am. Do you come here often . He works here, terry you work here, right . Yes. Ok lets get to the point. Were going to take the deal. Get a 1000 volkswagen reward card on select 2015 jetta models. Or lease a 2015 jetta s for 139 a month after a 1000 volkswagen bonus. Now at 6 00 a. M. , d. C. Police program all hands on deck comes to an end as does a violent weekend in the district. Angie, were keeping a close eye on the d. C. Police union as they tally up a vote surrounding chief cathy lanier. What we could learn in a matter of hours. Summer break winds down. We are getting you ready as a huge chunk of students get ready to head back to school tomorrow. News4 today starts now. On this sunday morning, good morning. Welcome to news4 today. Im david culver. Im angie goff. Its sunday fun day. It is, yeah. Starting off nice out there. Yeah