I AM ABLE Center For Family Development JUST IN CASE YOU DON'T KNOW WHO WE ARE………………… History: I AM ABLE Center for Family Development, Inc. has been a fixture in the North Lawndale Community of Chicago since 1992 and provides therapeutic counseling, behavioral health and wellness services for children, youth and families. ABLE was founded and incorporated from a strengths‐based perspective because of the myriad of challenges and disparities faced by African American and Latino families who are plagued by substance abuse, family violence, marital break‐up, family dysfunction, adverse systemic issues and child welfare involvement. ABLE visionary, the Rev. Dr. Joseph Miller, left his position as Executive Director of a local health center to develop a research‐ based foundational methodology for mental health and wellness. This now stands as the core competency of I AM ABLE, which began as a volunteer organization providing tutoring, mentoring and behavioral health services to children. Beyond its strengths based beginnings, I AM ABLE began expanding its services to Chicago’s families with the greatest needs from a Family Systems approach. Those who lacked access to affordable, compassionate, professional mental health services in the community now had a mental health safe‐haven designed with them in mind. From those humble beginnings that started in the founders home on May 5, 1992, ABLE has expanded to become a research‐based therapeutic counseling and behavioral health center designed by faith, research and academic January 2012 Winter Edition know‐how. It has grown during its nearly twenty year history to become one of the premiere human service providers for children and families in the City of Chicago, serving Chicago’s West side and its contiguous communities, as far as Maywood, IL on the West, Roosevelt Square and West Town on the East, Humboldt Park and Logan Square on the North and Pilsen/Little Village on the South. We are now servicing families with clinical counseling in the South Shore Community. During its 191/2 years of existence, besides its core competency in therapeutic counseling, ABLE has housed more than eight life‐giving educational/family empowerment programs to enhance community wellness and behavioral health in the lives of thousands of families and students. We are a partner agency that collaborates with other life–giving organizations to ensure that no family falls through the cracks and that gaps are filled with quality, compassionate, affordable services, enabling us to live up to our motto of “empowering families and building communities.” PFE encouraged and empowered youth to maintain their innocence by building healthy self‐esteem and quality decision‐ making skills in all areas of life, especially as it relates to pre‐marital and casual sex. All of our programs have multiple curricula that are researched‐based, age specific and culturally sensitive. ABLLE 2 MEEET OUR C CEO DR. CAR ROLYN L. VESSEL V is a a Christian woman who consiiders herseelf blessed, highly favored in the e Kingdom and a spoiled by The Father. She possesses many creative gifts, talents and abilities that she uses to edify e the bo ody of Chrisst, those in the comm munities in which she liives, works, worshipss and througghout the wo orld. Dr. Vesseel has multiple degreess; thirty‐five years of professionaal service in the human service field, love es humanitty and is Her purpose committeed to family wellness. H on earth is to get folk delivered iinto destiny and, em mployed and d deployed into their life's pu urpose. The T most important deployment is into healthy fam milies, with an emphasis on CHILLDREN! She was summoned to be CEO/P President of I AM ABLLE Center for Family Devvelopment in n 2008. It is the only in ndigenous b behavioral health orrganization o on Chicago’ss Westside aand the only Westside aggency certifieed to offer Child‐Psyychotherapyy (CPP). ABLE'S CLINICAL COU UNSELING Our Clinical Counseliing Program m is designed d to servicce individualls, families and a coupless with theerapeutic counseling services. Ourr clinical services s enggage, equip and extend d to families, indivviduals and d couples,, professio onal counse eling servicees that aree critical to o their suste enance, matturation and d the maximization of their potenttial. Our Family Brridges Healtthy Relation nship Proggram funded d by the U.SS. Departmeent of Health and Hu uman Servicces through h the Meier's Clinic Foundation is the Chicago land d Healthy Marriage In nitiative. It is designed to assist a famillies in buiilding prop per support systems thaat help to en nsure heallthy relation nships. Its goal is to build stronger interp personal relationships with t existting couplees, while teaching those seekking to be in n relationship p how to ideentify a healthy parttner and develop effeective mmunication skills. Those not yett in a com relattionship orr that havee come ou ut of unhealthy relationships aree given the tools for building stronger intrapersonal relattionships prrior to entry or re‐entryy into new w relationships. These ttrainings occcur in Cook County Department D t of Correcctions Wom men’s Division. The go oal is to preepare for re‐entry intto healthy relationship ps, as welll as in com mmunity, sch hool and ch hurch settings. We arre privileged d to offer them t one on one. a organizattion that hass partnered with As an vario ous higher educationaal entities ABLE train n interns in order to fulfill their educational requirements. The following iss an article from one of o our interns entitled " From My Perspective…. By Nancy Tartt Seleecting and being b selectted for a clinical praccticum can be arduouss and an an nxiety provvoking process for many stud dents. Bein ng a studen nt at the Adler A Schoo ol of Proffessional Pssychology I I was privvy to evaluations fro om other sttudents of sites theyy interned with. w I AM ABLE A was one of them m and it cam me with higgh ratings. Thus, T wheen I was granted an interview I had already been provided p thee “inside sco oop”. After the interview and being offered the position I was very excited about the opportunity to be part of the organization. Now, after four months, I am confident I could not have found a better, more comprehensive site to provide the training I need to become a Marriage and Family Therapist. The clinical team at I AM ABLE has created and promotes an environment where the commitment to training highly skilled therapists is paramount. Upon arrival, a seven‐week training was held providing an overview of the organization, articles on therapeutic approaches and other pertinent documents. Everyone at ABLE is dedicated to the development and training of the Interns. Needless to say I am the envy of many of my fellow students, to have landed a practicum site that invests greatly in contributing to the development of me as a person and Marriage and Family Therapist. Prematurely yes, but….thank you I AM ABLE. PRESERVED FOR EXCELLENCE (PFE) The goal of Preserved For Excellence (PFE) is to teach youth to preserve themselves for excellent futures so they can become dependable, contributing members of society. Since its inception PFE serviced twenty‐five Chicago Public schools in Chicago’s North and South Lawndale communities in trainings, assemblies or individual counseling on abstinence education and healthy decision‐making. PFE @ LEGACY CHARTER SCHOOL By Almeassa Bonnie Carrell PFE is currently in partnership with Legacy ABLE 3 Charter School located in North Lawndale. ABLE was awarded the great opportunity to impact the lives of youth in the school and in the surrounding communities through its Preserved for Excellence Program. We provided education in the following areas: of making healthy choices for your life, developing healthy relationships with those you encounter on a daily basis, to setting long and short term goals for your life, how to avoid pregnancy, understanding STD’s and STI’s, and discovering the benefits of saving sex until marriage. The Preserved for Excellence peer coaches who were elected scholars from amongst their fellow classmates, lead the team in the creation and development of the school’s first pregnancy prevention video production. The script was written and produced by the scholars of Legacy Charter School. The purpose of the video is for youth to positively influence their peers in making healthy decisions as it relates to preserving themselves for excellent futures, with the hope of reducing and eliminating pregnancy amongst teens. It is our plan to continue to creatively offer the Pregnancy Prevention message that will excite and ignite the youth of the 21st Century. PFE @ COOK COUNTY TEMPORARY JUVENILE DETENTION CENTER (CCTJDC) By Maria Alfaro Through PFE, weekly behavioral health training Is provided inside the Cook County Temporary Juvenile Detention Center (CCTJDC) because the conditions there ABLE literally hinder their successful re‐entry because of the wide range of daily support services provided; including housing, clean clothing, individual beds, quality counseling, educational and psycho‐social services, like ABLE provides not to mention three well‐ balanced meals, love and attention. These are the critical and urgent needs that often go unmet when they re‐enter the community which is what ABLE seeks to address through its broad based community partnerships. As a Community Educator, Maria shares her experience: My experience mentoring at Juvenile Detention Center is very rewarding. This will be my fourth year with I.A.M.A.B.L.E. in this facility. I love the way the kids and counselors really engage with the subject being taught. A counselor once told me; make the youth think and when they are walking back upstairs to their rooms they will say, "she is right, I’m straightening my life up and going back to school." That is why I feel mentoring the youth at CCTJDC is very effective and will give them lasting changes in their lives. THE SAFETY NETWORKS (SNW) By Loren Williams The Safety Networks is a violence prevention program for youth ages 10‐24 who reside in the West Garfield Park community. This program currently exists in over 18 communities. Case Management services at I.A.M.A.B.L.E Center for Family Development consists of on‐going, in‐depth services for youth 4 identified as medium to high risk for violence. Case management is inclusive of active outreach, standard intake forms, consent forms, standard assessments, service planning, support linkages, family involvement, access to other SNW’s and community services. There is a minimum of one face‐to‐face meeting per week with the client. Emergency client support and referral services, as well as follow‐up services are available for youth ages 10‐24 years of age. The goals/objectives for this quarter include but are not limited to; providing youth and families with client‐centered supportive services from a systems approach, integrating best practices into the youth’s real life situations in order to produce a window of opportunity for them as well as their families. SNW West equip youth in developing a stronger sense of self‐worth and self‐efficacy as a means of violence prevention. The interventions currently being put into practice teach youth problem solving techniques and strong communication skills. We educate their families by implementing family systems and narrative therapy. ABLE has visited all West Garfield grammar schools as well as the one high school in the area. We also collaborate with existing SNW’s in Auburn Gresham and in the Austin community. ABLE has expanded its collaborative relationship with West Garfield’s Way of Life Church International by housing its SNW, program at 4635 W. Fulton in Chicago, Illinois.