Ribbon Cutting Marks Opening of Children's Home

On April 5th, after three years of planning and development, Kinship opened its 10-bed children's diagnostic home. Known as Kinship Children's Home and located on Main Street in Dansville, New York, the residence serves boys an girls between the ages of 5 and 12 years who require temporary residential care while receiving comprehensive psychological, psychiatric, medical, psychosocial, and academic testing and evaluation.

Kinship Children's Home serves children from communities located throughout the Finger Lakes Region. The home is staffed by a team of trained Sociotherapists who guide the children through their daily activities. Complementing the team is our behavioral specialist, recreation therapist, dietician, and receptionist. Our clinical team which is coordinated by our clinical social worker, is made up of our consulting psychologist, psychiatrist, behavioral pediatrician, and certified special education teacher. You can learn more about Kinship Children's Home in the pages that follow.

As you look forward to the holiday season, why not consider a donation to Kinship Children's Home. Your support and the support of many like yourself, is critical to our continuing to provide residential diagnostics care to the children of our area. And your gift is tax deductible. Contributions to Kinship Children's Home should be sent tot he address on the back of this newsletter. If you would like to learn more about the home and how you or your group can help, please give us a call at (607) 324-0909.

Thanks to The Dansville Mustang Football Players

It only took one phone call to Dansville Athletic Direction, Jim McMahon and the job was scheduled. Kinship Children's Home had installed a new playground, but the pea stone and kid's carpet still needed to be spread out this job could have taken hours for a few men to do by hand, but on Friday August 27, 2004, the Dansville Varsity and Junior Varsity football players came over after their morning practice and completed the job. The young men worked as a team and finished the job in just 45 minutes.

The Kinship family wants to say “THANK YOU” to these terrific young men for a job well done.

The playground equipment was made possible by donations from the Dansville Presbyterian Church, United Methodist Church of Dansville, Dansville Lionesses Club, and the Arly Weider Memorial Fund.

Kinship Children's Diagnostic Home Because of You...

Seven children from our communities,between the ages of five and twelve years have a better chance at a future that includes a stable family life, mental and physical health, academic success and a fulfilling social life. They are just the first to reap the benefits of Kinship's new Children's Diagnostic Home. This is a reality because of the many generous people who wanted to make a difference in their own life and the lives of children who need help.

Kinship is able to intervene at an early age with diagnostic services and treatment recommendations that can bring about brighter futures for these children, their families and the community. Early intervention and treatment is key to beating the deficits in children's lives. They live at the home for ninety days while the clinical team and staff works with them and their families. They begin to develop some of the skills, discipline and behavioral habits necessary to succeed in their family, school and community lives. At the end of this time a comprehensive diagnostic report is completed with specific treatment recommendations for the child and their family. Some of the children have gone home with services to assist the family in following through on the treatment recommendations; others have been placed in Kinship's Therapeutic Foster Care program with necessary services and a goal of family reunification.

The health issues these children struggle with become evident based on their behavior and are identified as needing attention by parents, teachers, school social workers, pediatricians and others in the child's life. Kinship services are then referred through the county Departments of Social Services throughout the region.

Kinship Children's Home is located on Main Street in Dansville, across from Dansville Primary School. The home sits on two acres of land with a lot of room for kids to run, play, and grow. Upon entering, you instantly know you are in a very warm, comfortable home environment with the big cushioned couches and chairs in the living room, and the wonderful smells of cooking and baking coming from the kitchen. A little further look and you will see children sitting secure in the laps of living, caring staff members, having a book read to them. Other children you will see sitting on the floor, struggling through their homework with the gentle guidance of Kingship Sociotherapists. Some children may be in the kitchen helping or doing some other chore, or int heir room that they decorated.

The children have been bowling, swimming, hiking in Stony Brook Park, to a Sunday matinee, they've met Sparky the Fire Prevention Dog and thanks to Dr. Joan Flender, these children enjoyed a tethered hot air balloon ride. They've been involved in many activities that give them a chance to develop the social skills that will help them succeed in life and be able to contribute to their communities.

The children, most importantly, receive the diagnostic services necessary to fully understand each child's needs and develop an effective treatment plan with services that allow them to grow and have a healthy life. These services cover all aspects of a child's physical and mental health. The clinical team consists of a Consulting Psychologist, Child Psychiatrist, Behavioral Pediatrician, Special Education Teacher, Recreational Therapist, Clinical Coordinator and Behavioral Specialist. In addition there is a staff of Nurses and Sociotherapists that work with the children throughout their day. We invite you to come see Kinships' home, please give us a call t (607) 324-0909.

Child Health Services

Our Child Healthy Services staff coordinated with health care providers and foster parents to provide over 2500 medical, dental and mental healthy appointments this last year. This allows for continuity in health care that has not occurred in the lives of many of the children we serve. Meeting their varied and complex health needs strengthens the potential for the children to have improved academic success, be competitive in their athletic abilities and attain the social and coping skills necessary to improve quality of life. Our holistic approach to each child's health contributes to positive changes in their lives and the quality of family life. Strong, healthy families mean strong, healthy communities.

The Child Health Services staff engaged some of the adolescents that Kinship serves in the Healthy Kids Safer Choices Summer Fun Program. These teens participated in outdoor activities such as hiking, swimming, basketball, and tennis. These healthy physical activities were combined with an interactive healthy education component. The teens took part in discussion groups that addressed issues such as family relationships, various social skills, friendship building, teen pregnancy prevention, vision of self, handling disappointment, values and principles, maturity and goal setting.

The discussion groups were informal in nature, involving guided and candid open discussions, role-playing, modeling of appropriate behavior, and sharing of personal experiences and feelings. The teens walked away after our summer program having gained some of the knowledge and skills needed for them to be successful in their community life and be positive contributors tot heir community. When comparing these teens' attitudes and behaviors at the beginning of the program to those they exhibited at the end of the summer, the Child Health Services staff noted some positive changes in attitude and behavior characteristic of a healthy lifestyle.

The staff of Kinship's Child Health Services thanks you for the support you have given us and Kinship's children in our efforts of making a positive difference in their lives.