Happy September.
We are welcoming our families back to group, after our summer schedule, by adding an additional night to our Children to Children bereavement support group program. The need for our programs is greater now than ever before and we are determined to grow to meet our community’s needs. We will have a full NEST every Monday through Thursday evenings.
We have made some changes to our team. Amanda Marks MSW, has assumed the leadership role of Program Director. Amanda has served Tu Nidito families for more than 15 years and we are thrilled to have her shift her role to leading our program team and guiding our support services. Kristin Harrison has been promoted to Assistant Program Director as she assumes greater responsibility in program operations, curriculum development, mentoring and outreach. We welcome, Celina Grajeda to the team as our Bilingual Support Specialist, working with all of our Spanish speaking clients and families. Celina will lead our Wednesday Children to Children Support Groups. Danielle Celaya, a former Tu Nidito participant and current volunteer has come on staff to lead our Tuesday CTC support groups and Anthony Cicchino will transition to staff lead of our Young Adult support group. I am grateful to have these additional team members help deliver our mission to the community.
This past month we have been honored to have teams from Banner, TMC and Southern Arizona Children’s Advocacy Center tour Tu Nidito and learn ways to strengthen our partnerships. We hosted the Girls Mentoring Group from Goodwill for an afternoon of sharing and connection.
We celebrated the arrival of our long-awaited climbing structure. We are so grateful to the Tucson Conquistadores for making this a reality for our kids. Also, we are excited to share our very own Telephone of the Wind with our families. The Telephone of the Wind was the focus of our intergenerational summer curriculum stemming from the book of the same name. Family members are given the opportunity to make a phone call to their loved one who has died and share thoughts and feelings with them. For some participants this was the first time they found healing. One young adult shared that she missed a phone call from her father the day before he completed suicide and she never had the chance to talk with him. The telephone of the wind gave her the chance. She shared that it really helped her. Thanks to the help of some special donors and volunteers the Telephone is mounted and ready to use.
It has been a busy and gratifying summer and we are all ready for fall.
Sincerely,