Join the fun Saturday March 5, and Sunday March 6 at The Langham at 10am Tea or 1:30 pm tea. The event is designed especially for children and featuring a remarkable touch of magic. Guests are invited to enjoy a specialty tea menu with magically-decorated desserts while junior members of The Academy of Magical Arts are on hand to perform close-up magic. Young guests are invited to attend dressed as whichever character appeals to their imagination. Imagine Tea at The Langham Huntington, Pasadena is part of a family-oriented partnership created between the hotel and the junior program of Magic Castle, benefiting local children’s non-profit organizations.
[Monday, February 22, Altadena, CA] – Five Acres, a 128 year old agency promoting safety well-being and permanency for children and families in LA County hosted its third annual Clinical Conference. Through this annual event, Five Acres offers a platform for clinicians to enhance their knowledge and skills and acquire continuing education credits for MFT, LPCCS, LEPs and/or LCSW’s, as a requirement by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences.
Hosted by Chief Clinical Officer Dr. Rachel McClements, Psy D, and Director of Clinical Training, Katherine Tsai, Ph D. this year’s conference offered the more than two hundred clinicians from Five Acres and other local agencies a live seminar, “Understanding and Working Within Diverse Contexts of Child Development: Connecting Research to Applications” presented by Ioakim Boutakidis, Ph. D. Associate Dean of Student Success
College of Health & Human Development at the California State University, Fullerton.
This all day seminar examined content around the areas of developmental science including, socio-cultural variations in child development, how cultural and socioeconomic attributes affect parenting styles and what research tells us are the most effective points of clinical and social service intervention, to name a few.
Chief Clinical Officer ,Dr. Rachel McClements shares with us,
“Five Acres believes strongly in investing back into the staff, we acknowledge how important it is for our mental health practitioners to be up to date on the most current research in working with children and families, and apply that research to the work that they do, every day, ensuring the children we serve are kept safe, have wellbeing and belong in a permanent loving family home. It was delight to experience 2 days of learning with the entire clinical team.”
About Five Acres:
Five Acres is a child and family services agency based in Altadena, California strengthening families and preventing child abuse through treatment and education in community-based and residential programs. Established as an orphanage for forty boys in 1888, today Five Acres offers an array of services including community-based services, residential treatment, a non-public school and foster care and adoptions supporting more than 8,500 children and families across five counties. More information at www.5acres.org
For Immediate Release:
Contact: Rebecca Haussling
Tel: 626-773-3809
Twitter: @fiveacresorg
Five Acres Announces Achieves National Re-Accreditation
[Tuesday, February 16, 2016 Altadena, CA] – Five Acres has achieved national accreditation through the New York-based Council on Accreditation (COA). Five Acres provides community-based, deaf services, residential, foster care and adoption programs and a nonpublic school. Organizations pursue accreditation to demonstrate the implementation of best practice standards in the field of human services. COA evaluated all aspects of Five Acres’ programs, services, management, and administration.
COA accreditation is an objective, independent, and reliable validation of an agency’s performance. The COA accreditation process involves a detailed review and analysis of an organization’s administration, management, and service delivery functions against international standards of best practice. The standards driving accreditation ensure that services are well-coordinated, culturally competent, evidence-based, outcomes-oriented, and provided by a skilled and supported workforce. COA accreditation demonstrates accountability in the management of resources, sets standardized best practice thresholds for service and administration, and increases organizational capacity and accountability by creating a framework for ongoing quality improvement.
To achieve COA accreditation, Five Acres first provided written evidence of compliance with the COA standards. Thereafter, a group of specially trained volunteer Peer Reviewers confirmed adherence to these standards during a series of on-site interviews with trustees, staff and clients.
Based on their findings, COA’s volunteer-based Accreditation Commission voted that Five Acres had successfully met the criteria for accreditation.
An endorsement of COA and the value of its accreditation process is reflected in it being named by the US State Department as the sole national independent accrediting body under the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption to accredit inter-country adoption service providers. In addition, COA is the only national accreditor designated by the U.S. Department of Defense to develop accreditation standards and processes for human service programs provided to military personnel and their families.
Founded in 1977, COA is an independent, not-for-profit accreditor of the full continuum of community-based behavioral health care and social service organizations in the United States and Canada. Over 2,000 organizations — voluntary, public, and proprietary; local and statewide; large and small — have either successfully achieved COA accreditation or are currently engaged in the process. Presently, COA has a total of 47 service standards that are applicable to over 125 different types of programs. To learn more about COA, please visit www.COAnet.org.
Five Acres is a 128 year old child and family services agency strengthening families and preventing child abuse through treatment and education in community based and residential programs. Founded in 1888 as an orphanage, today Five Acres offers an array of services including community-based services, residential treatment, foster care and adoption, supporting more than 8,500 children and families across five counties. More at www.5acres.org
(Wednesday February 4, 2016 – ALTADENA) – Effective March 1, Five Acres will expand services by launching a new Transitional Shelter Care (TSC) program on their residential campus in Altadena.
This pilot program, administered through the Los Angeles Department of Children and Family Services, will provide short-term care; up to 72 hours in most cases – for youngsters who are experiencing the trauma of being removed from their families, or who have suffered a placement disruption.
Five Acres’ program will serve girls age 6-14, with a priority to siblings to help keep them together. The girls will stay in the newly renovated TSC cottage, which can accommodate up to 15 residents at a time. Dedicated staff will provide direct care, crisis services, therapeutic interaction, supervision, and comfort during this difficult time in the lives of these young girls. Because children will only be with us for a short time, we anticipate serving hundreds of additional youngsters each year through this unique program.
There are approximately 20,000 boys and girls in Los Angeles County Foster Care, and children are constantly in flux: entering the system, awaiting placement, shifting from one placement to another, transitioning back to biological families, and moving to the homes of relatives, foster, and adoptive families. There simply are not enough beds to accommodate them all during times of transition. Five Acres will help to mitigate this dilemma, by providing a safe, therapeutic place for these girls to land, and provide the care and support they need, on their journey towards permanency.
Gina Perez, Chief Program Officer shares,
“It was vital for Five Acres to respond to the needs of our children and community in providing a safe and supportive temporary haven for girls and in keeping siblings together during the first hours and days of separation from their families.”
About Five Acres
Five Acres is a child and family services agency strengthening families and preventing child abuse through treatment and education in community based and residential programs. Founded in 1888, today Five Acres offers an array of services including community-based services, residential treatment, foster care and adoption, supporting the nearly 8,400 children and families across five counties. More at www.5acres.org
Creating Families Today: A Conversation with local Social Service Agencies
One City One Story
Thursday, March 3
Pasadena Central Library • 285 E. Walnut St. • Pasadena, CA
6 p.m. • Reception in West Patio
7 p.m. • Panel Discussion followed by Q & A in Donald Wright Auditorium
6 – 9 p.m. • Social Service Agencies Information Displays
The Children’s Aid Society and Orphan Asylums of the past have evolved into today’s social service agencies that provide residential treatment, foster care and adoption, transitional living assistance for emancipated foster youth, and a myriad of mental health and educational support services for youth.
Representatives from local social service agencies Five Acres, Hathaway-Sycamores and Hillsides will join Library Director Jan Sanders in conversation, sharing information on the history of their agencies, what they are doing in the community today and how the community can support them now and in the future.
Tuesday, January 19, 2016 [Altadena, CA] – Five Acres announces today it has been awarded a $100,000 grant from the Annenberg Foundation in support of its Residential Treatment Programs, in particular the “Open Doors” Residentially Based Services pilot program for children with emotional disturbances.
Five Acres Residential Treatment Programs provide round-the-clock therapeutic care to boys and girls age 6-17 who have been removed from their homes by child protective services and who live at Five Acres during their treatment. The program annually serves 130-140 children whose emotional needs are too severe to be served in foster home settings. Most clients are from ethnicities of color, and nearly all are from low or very-low income households.
The goal of the Residential Treatment Program is to stabilize children’s behavior through therapy and treatment, so that they can transition into less restrictive settings, such as the home of a parent or relative, foster-to-adoptive home, or legal guardian.
“Open Doors” Residential Behavioral Services is the pilot program utilized in two of the seven cottages for Residential Treatment at Five Acres. This program is helping the county and state identify strategies to shorten the time foster children spend in institutionalized settings and to increase their success rates when re-introduced into family home environments. Results will be used to help inform congregate care policy changes for the State of California.
Chief Program Officer of Five Acres, Gina Perez shares,
“This generous $100,000 gift from the Annenberg Foundation supports Five Acres mission of promoting the safety, and wellbeing, for children in our care. This grant will serve to further our aim of connecting children to permanent and loving families.”
Established in 1989, the Annenberg Foundation is a family foundation that provides funding and support to nonprofit organizations in the United States and globally. The Foundation and its Board of Directors are also directly involved in the community with innovative projects that further its mission of advancing a better tomorrow through visionary leadership today. The Foundation encourages the development of effective ways to communicate by sharing ideas and knowledge.
Five Acres is grateful for the vital support of generous individuals, corporations, and foundations such as The Annenberg Foundation to help at-risk children achieve safety, well-being, and permanent, loving families.
About Five Acres:
Five Acres is a child and family services agency strengthening families and preventing child abuse through treatment and education in community based and residential programs. Established as an orphanage in 1888, today Five Acres offers an array of services including community and deaf services, therapeutic and foster care , adoption and a nonpublic school. In 2015 Five Acres supported more than 8, 500 children and family members across five counties.
For more information please visit www.5acres.org or contact Director of Branding & Communications, Rebecca Haussling at rhaussling@5acres.org
“The Art of the City Wall: Mixed Message” Exhibit Opens in Old Pasadena January 21, 2016
PASADENA – January 7, 2016 – On Thursday, January 21 the Curatorial Assistance Gallery in Old Pasadena will open, “The Art of the City Wall: Mixed Message,” the gallery’s photography exhibit featuring the work of photographer and longtime local resident, Bill Wishner. Using photography as a means to illustrate the aesthetics of the urban wall. The exhibit consists of more than twenty prints ranging in sizes 20 x 30 to nearly 40 x 80 and highlights the diversity of the urban environment in various cities around the globe.
The photograph attached entitled, “Rodeo” was shot by Bill in New York City in 2014 and captures the evocative, colorful, and mysterious of urban wall art.
“Photographs in the exhibit are silent witness to social engagement and cultural messaging at multiple levels in our urban societies,” says Bill Wishner. “Each picture is as it was in real life. The reality of how, why and when each component was added to the wall is not known for sure. They are, collectively created in the aesthetic of democratic artistic expression.”
The exhibit is on view from January 21 to March 6, 2016 at Curatorial Assistance Gallery in the heart of Pasadena. “The Art of the City Wall” is curated by Bill Wishner and (gallery director, Sam Mellon.
The exhibition will have photographs for sale with a portion of proceeds benefitting Altadena-based child and family services organization Five Acres. Founded in 1888, Five Acres began as an orphanage serving 40 boys. Today, the organization supports more than 8,500 children and families across five counties in southern California and offers residential care, community-based programs, foster care and adoptions and a therapeutic school for children and youth with special needs. More information at www.5acres.org
Curatorial Assistance has been providing expert art services since 1987 and has worked with thousands of art professionals and notable photography studios, worldwide.
The gallery is located at 115 East Union Street, Pasadena 91103 (*please note: the gallery is not wheelchair accessible.)
“The Art of the City Wall” officially opens to the public on January 21 to March 6 and will include an opening reception the evening of January 28, 6-9PM along with An Artist Talk with Bill Wishner will be scheduled before the exhibit closes in early March.
About Bill Wishner:
Bill began his career in photography more than twenty years ago as a photographer focusing on jazz. His jazz photographs have been featured in multiple exhibits and he was co-editor on the 40th Anniversary book for the Monterey Jazz Festival entitled, Monterey Jazz Festival: 40 Legendary Years (Angel City Press, 1997.) More recently Bill has turned his creative lens on the urban environment, featuring photographs from cities he has traveled to around the world. A local Pasadena resident, Bill currently serves on the board of Five Acres and helps teach medical ethics as a Clinical Professor of Medicine at Keck USC School of Medicine. Bill enjoys prose poetry and has published two volumes of prose poems called “Things That Happen When You Travel.” Learn more about Bill’s career and his creative process at www.paracosmphotography.com
Come celebrate the season. Join Five Acres’ supporters December 17th at dine-to-donate participating locations when 15% of your dining will be donated to Five Acres.
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