Category: Voice of an FCNI Staff

I’m Nat, a Rehabilitation Specialist working with youth at Family Care Network. I’ve been a mentor for about six months now, and I’d like to share about my experience because I think that mentoring foster youth makes a big difference in their lives and in our community. I met my mentee working as a Rehabilitation Specialist in our Emergency Shelter Care Program. She was in a shelter foster home for about six months, and during those months I picked her up from school almost every day, and spent the rest of the day with her.

The programs and support we provide to the youth and families in our care are designed to be strength-based, trauma-informed, and, most of all, empowering. We believe that the relationship between caregivers--whether they be biological parents/family members, foster parents, respite providers, teen parents or adoptive/guardians--and the children in their care is vital to the overall success of every child and family. Therefore, empowering and encouraging healthy relationships within families is one of our main objectives.

October is National Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and on our blog we’ve shared different perspectives on this tremendously impacting issue, detailing how detrimental it is to our families, communities and culture as a whole. Every instance of domestic violence has multiple victims; multiple lives irrevocably changed. Below is such a life. Tanya Winje, an FCNI Program Supervisor, bravely shares her personal story of fear, hopelessness, survival and healing. 

Previously on our blog, we introduced you to Destiny and shared her personal journey from foster youth to FCNI Youth Partner. We’ve been so thankful for Destiny and her inspirational spirit--she truly transformed her life and circumstances into teaching opportunities to support our Transitional-Age youth in amazing ways. We’re now sharing the next leg of Destiny’s journey, as she continues to follow her dreams and inspire us all.

My name is Marycruz Jimenez, and I am currently a Social Worker in FCNI’s Wraparound program. Prior to becoming a Social Worker, I was an FCNI Rehabilitation Specialist for three years. I came into that position soon after I graduated from Cal Poly in 2015 with a degree in Sociology, with a concentration on Social Work. I became really familiar with the Social Work field in my undergraduate years, always knowing that this was where I wanted to focus my learning and experience.

We all know that the Back-to-School anxiety is a real thing, so some of our Rehabilitation Specialist staff who work one-on-one with our youth and families, as well as in the classroom with kids, put together some pointers on how to make this transition as smooth as possible!

Here are some of Makayla’s suggestions:

► Visit the school BEFORE the first day!

I’m Jonathan, a Lead Rehabilitation Specialist with the Family Care Network and a Wraparound Program Coordinator. In my job, I have the privilege of working with amazing youth and families every day. Every one of them has a story of challenges and courage. But there was one family in particular who really stood out to me as having outstanding resilience and experienced incredible growth. The foster family I am speaking about was served in our Wraparound program.

Gathering with others dedicated to serving children, youth and families from around the nation is always inspiring, and this year’s Family Focused Treatment Association’s (FFTA) yearly conference was no exception. In attendance were policymakers, foster care agencies, healthcare providers and foster parents, all gathered together to encourage one another and to become better equipped in the work we do to serve our nation’s most vulnerable population: foster youth.

Hi, my name is Natalie Watson, and I’m obsessed with foster care! I can’t wait to one day be a foster parent, and here’s why….

I recently started a quest with my 16 year old son to complete three endurance obstacle course races within one calendar year. The shorter of the races is three to five miles with 20-25 obstacles; and the longest is 12 to 14 miles with 30-35 obstacles. Then there is one somewhere in the middle of those two. One really important piece to know is that you don’t really know how far the race is or which obstacles you will encounter until race day. Some obstacles are even kept secret from you until you round a corner and see it in front of you.