School District Offers On-Site Services for Families in Need

Donna Brosius knows what it is like to be homeless and unemployed--and the effect that has had on her sixth-grade daughter.

Brosius, 34, a single mother, said that working as a waitress is the only job she knows. But after being assaulted last spring, she quit working because she could no longer wait on tables because of resulting injuries to her hand.

Without a job, she lost her home. Needing money, she even resorted to standing on street corners looking for work.

“It’s affected my daughter--she sees me cry and be depressed,” Brosius said.

With nowhere else to go, she turned to her daughter’s school district for help.

Through the Centralia School District’s Community Collaborative for Prevention, families such as the Brosiuses are being assisted with intervention and support services.

Brosius said if she didn’t have the school district to help her with counseling and shelter and job referrals, “I wouldn’t know where to go and what to do. . . . There are other young parents in need of services like these.”

Over the month that she’s been receiving assistance from the district, her outlook on life has brightened, which in turn has helped her daughter.

“Seeing me with a better attitude helps her attitude,” she said. “If parents are not well, the children are not well, and they’re not going to learn. That’s why it’s good that there are these programs, because they see the family’s needs as a whole.”

Susan Fahrney, the Buena Park school district’s family services program coordinator, said the Centralia Community Collaborative for Prevention is a partnership made up of representatives from county and city agencies, service clubs and businesses, as well as teachers and parents. Their effort is to bring resources to school sites to help children and their families.

“We have to get involved because we have to help secure their future,” said Valenna Washington, a district parent and owner of a Buena Park family day-care center who is a member of the collaborative’s steering council. “If we don’t meet their needs in the beginning, we’re going to have children who are unfit in our society.”

Fahrney said the district’s coalition plans are to help families with health-care issues, parenting skills, and mental health services, as well as provide resources for employment, drug and alcohol abuse, gang and child abuse prevention and support for immigrants.

“We’re seeing ourselves as more than a school for children,” said Centralia Elementary School Principal Linda Rader. “We just don’t teach reading, writing and arithmetic anymore; we have broader needs we meet.”

Plans are to establish a Client Service Center and Health Clinic, but $50,000 needs to be raised to renovate two classrooms at Centralia School for such facilities, Fahrney said. A mental health center is also planned at Raymond Temple Elementary School.

The school district received a $50,000 state grant to plan the Collaborative for Prevention but did not receive any money to start the program.

So far, the district has received a $5,000 donation. Plans are to raise $400,000 for the three-year program through corporate and community sponsors, Fahrney said.

Centralia and Danbrook elementary schools will be the first to offer services to families.

Fahrney also said the program is needed because if there are problems in children’s home life, it is difficult for them to learn.

“What our vision is is to bring in those resources to help children and their families so these children can get onto a positive, successful path,” she said. “Our intent is to provide the support to families to help themselves.”

For more information on the program or to donate, call (714) 228-3141.