Sharing Works
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- an 11-year-old boy turning to crime to deal with his parents' divorce.
Some people might have a hard time dealing with this, but Weiss sees hope where others wouldn't.
“I love my job and these kids!” says Weiss, who works as a counselor for the school's Carekids program. “I have kids who were in preschool and are now in fifth grade.
You do get attached to them. And I love to see the positive changes they
make thanks to the Carekids program.”
Safe haven
In partnership with the San Diego City School District, Carekids
is a school-based service center that provides much-needed preventive
care to more than 100 clients each year. The program has become
a safe haven and a place to get help for the entire community.
Through the program, Weiss works with individual students, refers families
to local services, observes and assesses at-risk youth, and trains teachers
to deal with issues in the classroom. In a school where 85 percent of the
students live at or below the poverty level, and where homelessness, drug
abuse, terminal illness and violence are a part of everyday life, the need
for this type of help is clear.
“Working with the parents really helps make a difference with the
students,” says Weiss. “These parents just don’t
have many resources or know what the community has to offer. And once they
know, it’s really empowering.”
Community wants to improve
“San Diego’s Golden Hill area is a difficult environment, but we’ve
been successful in making a difference, because this community wants to improve
the educational and living environment for their children,” says Cheryl
Alexander. She’s the director of Parenting and Youth Services at Jewish Family Service of San Diego,
which launched the program at Brooklyn Elementary six years ago and now gets
support from Sempra Energy.
“Without Sempra Energy’s help, Carekids wouldn’t reach
as many kids in need as it does,” says Alexander.
Weiss agrees and hopes the program can keep giving children facing tough
situations some sense of normalcy, so their emotional health and education
don’t suffer. Because, Carekids works to improve the overall health
of the Golden Hill area and is having a lasting impact on troubled children
and the broader community.
