Honoring our volunteers

Sunny Hills celebrated the members of the Auxiliary and Guilds of Sunny Hills Services at a luncheon on Wednesday, October 28th at the McInnis Park Golf Club in San Rafael. This esteemed group of individuals has provided generous and loyal support to the agency for decades, helping us to raise financial support and community awareness on behalf of the children and families we serve. We were pleased to honor volunteers celebrating milestones ranging from 55 years of service to 5 years. This group's service to Sunny Hills is unparalleled and we are grateful for their steadfast support and unconditional belief in the mission of Sunny Hills. Please join me in celebrating their numerous contributions to our community!

Shocking Statistics on Children's Exposure to Violence

Earlier this month, the US Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) published "Children's Exposure to Violence: A Comprehensive National Survey." The survey was designed to measure children's exposure to violence across the country, in their homes, their schools, and their communities. It spanned across all age groups, ethnicities, and income levels and was the first of its kind ever undertaken by the government. The numbers revealed by the survey were shocking to many, even those of us on the front lines providing care to children who have been traumatized by violence.

The OJJDP found that over 60% of American children have been exposed to physical violence in their lives over the past year. The violence that the children and young people were exposed to included robbery, vandalism, theft, sexual abuse, and physical assault. The survey did not measure emotional abuse or bullying, but rather looked only at the experience and/or witnessing of physical violence. In one of the most shocking numbers to come out of the study, it was found that nationwide, nearly HALF of all children and adolescents were physically assaulted at least once in the past year. Earlier this month, in response to the findings in the survey, US Attorney General Eric Holder gave a speech addressing what he called “a challenge that affects the entire nation.” The Attorney General called the findings “Astonishing … and unacceptable,” and at Sunny Hills we echo that sentiment.

While these numbers in and of themselves can be shocking and even demoralizing, they are also an important first step for our country to take in eliminating violence against children; through understanding the nature and extent of children's exposure to violence, we can work more effectively to mitigate its effects. As this survey shows, it remains crucial that we provide programs and services that give opportunities for these vulnerable young people to build better and brighter futures for themselves and their families. I deeply appreciate all of our Sunny Hills supporters for helping us do this critical work that allows the countless children and families who have been exposed to violence to heal. Thank you.

For the complete text of Attorney General Holder’s remarks, click here.
For the OJJDP’s official survey and results, click here.

Sunny Hills' Leadership Circle members honored last night

Last night, Bruce and Theresa Raabe hosted a lovely reception at their home in Kentfield in honor of the Sunny Hills Services Leadership Circle, a donor society honoring benefactors who have given generously to Sunny Hills over their lifetime. We are grateful to Bruce and Theresa for opening their home to us. The acoustic melodies played by guitarist, Clay Bell offered a lovely backdrop to this convivial gathering, and the hors d’oeuvres prepared by Mangia Nosh were delicious.

I always look forward to this annual event because it is one small way we can recognize those who have afforded us the opportunity to continue to grow and thrive as an agency. With the support of the Leadership Circle, philanthropy has enabled Sunny Hills to seed new ventures and expand our delivery to reach an even greater number of children and youth in need—which this year will top more than 1,000 across the greater San Francisco Bay Area.

Last night, I was thrilled to be able to share some exciting news: Sunny Hills has met the match for the J. Patrick and Irene Hunt Fund, a named fund established in 2007 in support of Sunny Hills’ educational programs for special needs youth. Longtime board member, Cathy Kennedy and her husband, Dan Grossman joined other generous donors to the Fund to provide the remaining match needed to meet our goal. Together with the Hunts’ own generous financial contributions, the Fund will provide half a million dollars to enhance our programs like the Marin Academic Center, a nonpublic K-8 school located on Sunny Hills’ campus in San Anselmo.

In addition, speaking on behalf of Marin County Supervisor Hal Brown who was unable to join us last night, Bruce Raabe announced a $5,000 grant from the County of Marin to Sunny Hills Services. We appreciate Supervisor Brown for his longstanding support of the agency, and for this new investment in our work.

To all of our Leadership Circle members and our broader donor community, I extend to you my heartfelt gratitude for partnering with us to realize this extraordinary mission. Thank you.

Theresa and Bruce Raabe

Irene Hunt and Cathy Kennedy

Joe Costa and Tony Cameron

J. Patrick Hunt

Leadership Circle members enjoying the evening

CEO Joe Costa addressing our guests

New directors bring expertise to the Board

Sunny Hills is pleased to announce Annette Bekowich and Jay Cahan have joined the Board of Directors. The elections increase the size of Sunny Hills’ Board to 25 members.

Annette’s involvement with Sunny Hills began a number of years ago through her volunteer service with Sunny Hills’ Belvedere Guild, an auxiliary group of women dedicated to volunteering and raising financial support on behalf of the children and families we serve. Annette currently serves as Vice President and Senior Financial Consultant for Wells Fargo Investments in Corte Madera. A Marin County native, she resides in Corte Madera with her husband and teenage daughter. Annette received her MBA from San Francisco State University. She brings a tremendous depth of knowledge to the Board of Sunny Hills where she will serve as a member of the Audit and Development committees.

Jay Cahan is the principal of LC Investments, a property management and real investment sales company. Previously, Jay was CEO of HC&M Commercial Properties, Inc. and also worked for BT Commercial in San Francisco. A resident of the town of Ross in Marin County, Jay has brings significant nonprofit experience by virtue of his board service with The Burt Children’s Center in San Francisco (2005 to present) and The Sage Project where he served as Board President (2002-2007). Jay received his undergraduate degree from the University of California, Berkeley.

Please join me in welcoming Annette and Jay!

BAYC Hosts Sold-Out Symposium on the Needs of LGBTQ Foster Youth

Bay Area Youth Centers (BAYC) hosted a successful symposium on Wednesday, September 16, 2009 at Preservation Park in Oakland. Titled “The Needs and Experiences of LGBTQ Youth in Out-of-Home Care,” this day-long event featured a keynote presentation by a former foster youth who began his transition to a male while still in care. The remainder of the day was marked by a balance of informal dialogue and formal presentations, including panels addressing topics such as the physical and emotional health of transgender youth; risk factors, safety and community; and fluidity of identity and gender expression.

The response to the symposium was overwhelmingly positive: registration reached maximum capacity of 110, far exceeding BAYC's initial expectations. Participants came from across the San Francisco Bay Area and included staffers from the University of California, private foundations, the Alameda and Santa Clara County Departments of Education, Human Services and Behavioral Health, faith-based organizations, and community-based nonprofit organizations serving foster youth.

Excerpts from Symposium Evaluations

This is one of the best presentations I’ve been to in a long time. I loved the format, diversity of panelists and topics covered. Great work! I have nothing but praise for all of the panelists and organizers.

I will go back to the UC Office of the President and make sure that UC campuses and services are culturally competent and fully accessible to LGBTQ and foster youth.

I loved that it was a day full of dialogue and conversation vs. being taught and lectured to. I loved that the conversations addressed every level of care from direct service to policy issues.

This symposium served as a reminder about the continued work I need to do in order to be better educated about working with LGBTQ youth—the resources and discussion offered today will be helpful to me when working with youth.

I appreciated the good quality legal and medical presentations balanced with lay activists and Child Welfare professionals. I appreciate how well organized the symposium was and the high quality of presentations.

There’s been great dialogue & points brought up that I’ll take back to my community, and that will lead to more action. Also, I will definitely contact others that I’ve met to help within the community.

A key outcome for the day was to share lessons learned and build a stronger network of service providers in the San Francisco Bay Area who are competent to serve this specialized population of foster youth. We certainly felt that this day marked the beginning of an important, ongoing dialogue, and BAYC looks forward to spearheading the establishment of a work group that will continue to address the issues brought forth that day. BAYC will also begin evaluating the system gaps identified during symposium discussions, and evaluating its capacity to fill these unmet needs.

BAYC is grateful to the Tides Foundation for providing the funding to enable us to host this symposium. It was a rich, rewarding day for all and we feel inspired, as do many of our colleagues in the field, to move forward with energy and enthusiasm.

For more information about the symposium or BAYC, contact Josh Leonard, Executive Director at (510) 727-9401 or josh@bayareayouthcenters.org.

Budget Cuts Put More Group Homes at Risk

As part of the state budget, a 10% cut in reimbursement rates for care of children in nonprofit group homes was approved. This cut was enacted by the state legislature and is not part of the Governor’s controversial line-item vetoes; it is set to go into effect October 1st. Carroll Schroeder, Executive Director of CACFS, said, "With this cut … agencies will be forced to choose between seriously downsizing, closing their programs entirely, or providing substandard care for their kids."

Last Friday, the Alliance (of which Sunny Hills is a member) filed suit in federal court to prevent the state from enacting the cut. Several lawsuits have been filed in recent weeks to challenge cuts made in the state budget in response to California's fiscal crisis. Since the rate cut means that California would pay just 68 cents for every dollar it costs to care for foster children in group homes, the basis for the lawsuit is the state’s failure to pay appropriate rates, or rates that adequately reimburse the costs of providing care in private nonprofit foster care group homes. Since federal law requires that states “cover the cost” of children’s care in order to obtain federal foster care matching funds, the rate cut is allegedly a violation of federal foster care laws.

California’s group home rate system was originally implemented in 1990. It was based on the cost of providing care and supervision at that time. However, in the nineteen intervening years, there have been only four increases to the reimbursement rate the state pays out, despite exponential increases in the costs of care. Coupled with this long history of no increase in payment, the 10% reduction approved by the governor would drop reimbursement rates to just 68% of their original value. This means that while spending more than ever to provide basic care, group homes are being reimbursed far less than at any time in the past twenty years.

If the 10% cut is implemented in October, up to one-third of the state’s group home capacity could be lost, affecting over 2,000 youth. Forty-one of the California Alliance’s present and former member agencies have closed or seriously cut back their group home programs since 2001, due in large part to the inadequacy of reimbursement rates. Many of you are familiar with this endemic problem, as we saw the impacts of it on our own programs with the closing of the Sunny Hills Residential Treatment Program and the Children’s Garden Group Homes. Youth in group homes typically have the most challenging circumstances of any foster youth. Their needs are extraordinarily complex to require that level of placement, and they are at even higher risk than other foster children for homelessness, jail, and hospitalization. While many of these young people can thrive in adequate settings, such as those provided by our own BAYC Group Home program, their needs are generally too complex to be met in traditional foster family placements.

California is in a fiscal crisis and we are all working hard to help bring our great state back to a balanced budget; however, cutting funding for the most defenseless of our state’s already at-risk foster population is not the answer. As their support infrastructure is strained state wide, it is especially critical that housing and treatment needs of these extremely vulnerable young people be met, not severed.

For more information, please visit the Alliance online.

Fall Fashion Show and Fundraiser this October

Mark your calendars for Tuesday, October 13, 2009 and join the Greenbrae Guild and friends at 11:30 am for an afternoon of fine food, festivities and fabulous fashion at Deer Park Villa in Fairfax. Feast your eyes on the latest in contemporary women's apparel courtesy of Anne's Secret Hangups of Novato. Tickets are $45 per person and all proceeds benefit Sunny Hills. The luncheon includes your choice of oven broiled salmon, veal scaloppini, or soup and shrimp louis salad. Please rsvp no later than October 1st to (415) 457-3200 ext 114 to reserve your place.

The Guilds of Sunny Hills Services are an association of women who have dedicated themselves to volunteering and raising financial support on behalf of the children and families we serve. Since the early 1900s the Guilds have raised more than a million dollars in charitable support which has helped thousands of kids over the years. At its height, there were nearly 40 active guilds in the community. Today, there are four active guilds: Greenbrae Guild, Novato Guild, Glenwood Guild, and the Terra Linda Guild, in addition to numerous other past guild members who serve as sustainers to this day. Sunny Hills is grateful for the extraordinary commitment these women have made. Learn more about the Guilds' service to our Sunny Hills community on our Web site, including the Grape Festival and the Bargain Box.