Letter from a Grateful Para Las Familias Parent

Read Spanish Translation Here/Lea la Traducción al Español Aquí

ECS Para Las Familias (PLF) is an outpatient behavioral and mental health clinic for low-income children ages 0 to 12 and their families. PLF’s bilingual therapists provide a variety of early-childhood mental health services that aim to strengthen guardian-child bonds, address behavioral issues, boost confidence, give tools for successful parenting, and more. Former PLF parent Alicia expresses her gratitude for the program in the following letter:

To whom it may concern,

First of all, I want to thank Para Las Familias for all their support towards my family. Everything we have learned is thanks to them, from the Zoom courses with Angie Puffelis through the Circle of Security; I liked it so much and understood so much that I took it again for eight more weeks to reinforce what I learned. In each class, one could express any doubts and achievements over time.

When the classes ended, I wanted to continue learning more about motherhood and how to help my son. So, I asked for more information and that was when they gave my son and I the opportunity to start therapy with "his Miss Letty," a person so noble and upright in her work.

We learned a lot as parents since my husband and I, along with my son, attended therapy together. My son has learned a lot and we along with him. There were a lot of breakthroughs, I could say a lot of things about her... but in short, she is a professional at what she does... My son still remembers her and every day he asks about her and Mrs. Elizabeth who is the best person to receive parents. She is so cute and so nice, polite, and always available to answer any questions, or any doubts, or other needs. The truth is that they have a super team: Laura, Irene, Miss Margarita, Nancy. Every time I go, I feel at home because that is how they make us feel when we arrive. All the scheduled appointments are respected, they never make us wait, and if there is need to reschedule, or accommodations are needed, there are always options to agree to carry out the appointments in case one of the two sides cannot...

In general, from my point of view, therapy is the best for me. I am taking therapy right now with Angie, and wooo yes, I leave with a lot of information that I can put into practice at home. I am also with Miss Margarita with a nephew in therapy, and she has helped me a lot to understand his emotions and see through his eyes. To put myself in his place and thus help him a lot.

I am so grateful because I know that Para Las Familias came into our lives at the exact moment to be able to continue moving forward as a family and as first-time parents. We already have many tools to continue life and what I love the most is that the Circle of Security applies to any person of any age and is very well understood.

You never leave empty-handed. The children always leave with stickers, snacks, or a small toy. The attention they give to each child is extraordinary, I definitely recommend this beautiful place. They also help you with a lot of resources, information for support either pantry, activities for children, or more courses, etc...

Thank you so much for everything and God bless anyone who reads these humble words...

These are the words of a grateful mother with a heart willing to learn with her family. The road is not easy, but I know that little by little and with patience everything will work out.

Alicia’s story is just one example of how PLF can make a profound difference in people's lives. We are grateful for her willingness to share her journey with us. These heartfelt words from a grateful mother show her dedication to learning and growing with her family. The road is not easy, but with patience and perseverance, progress is made, little by little.

THANK YOU, PARA LAS FAMILIAS.

Donate today to provide funding and support to help families like Alicia’s.

Moonlight Ball 2024: Embraced by ECS

Sandra and her family attend the Moonlight Ball and share their story of ECS’ impact on their lives. May 2024.

Sandra had already raised four children, but nine years ago, she was unexpectedly tasked with raising two of her grandchildren, years after her kids had left the nest. Isabella and Isaac came into Sandra’s life and were in her words, “a gift from God.” Even so, the situation was not easy. “Basically, it was like starting over 23 years later,” Sandra said. “And I’m older, when you’re physically older it’s hard. You don’t have the same physical energy.”  

One of Sandra’s daughters was diagnosed with severe and visible mental illness when she was very young. When she reached her late twenties, Sandra’s daughter also developed a substance use disorder (SUD). Between her mental illness and SUD, “she went downhill fast,” as Sandra put it. Due to her destructive behavior, she was no longer able to live at home with her mother. 

“She told me she was pregnant, but I looked at her and all I saw was a very skinny person. I didn’t believe her,” Sandra said. A few months later, however, Sandra received a call from her daughter in labor and Isabella was born. Child Protective Services was called, and Isabella went to foster care. “I applied to get her, but it took about four and a half months because I was living in a big house, and I was renting rooms, so everybody had to be cleared,” Sandra said. In the meantime, Sandra visited Isabella with her foster mom, working to forge a bond with her granddaughter. 

Sandra acquired custody of Isabella, but another surprise was close behind when 15 months after Isabella was born, Sandra’s daughter gave birth to a second child — Isaac. Isaac also went to foster care, but because he went to the same foster mom as his sister, Sandra was able to get custody in just nine days. 

Suddenly a mother again, Sandra needed help. She asked her social worker for recommendations and ECS Head Start was suggested. “My thing was the expense of childcare and a trustworthy place to take my children, because I always had that fear. Even with my other kids, I was afraid to leave them with strangers,” Sandra explained. Because foster children count as “no income,” Isabella and Isaac were able to attend Head Start free of charge, alleviating financial stress. Head Start also met Sandra where she was in terms of trust. “I felt a trust in that woman [at Head Start Home Base] immediately. I mean I worked at U.S. customs; I think I’m pretty good at reading people. But I trusted her right away,” Sandra said. 

Isaac (front row, second from the right) recieved support from Home Based Head Start along with his sister. *May 2024.

Head Start provided free trustworthy childcare, but Sandra was struck by the ways in which the program went above and beyond those basics. “[The teacher] helped me with everything, she helped me with teaching her how to eat properly, to the basic manners, helping potty train her,” Sandra said. 

Sandra’s grandchildren attended Head Start for five years, starting when Isabella was a toddler and Isaac was just an infant. “The biggest thing I wanted was trust, my child to be happy, and my child to learn. And I felt all those needs were met,” Sandra said. She described how Head Start helped Isabella and Isaac learn good behavior, establish a routine, and get excited to go to school. The center even helped Sandra’s children learn to brush their teeth and use eating utensils. “They were happy,” she said. “When you work, and you take your child somewhere you want them to learn and be happy.” By the time the two children went to kindergarten, they were prepared. Sandra shared that the T-K teacher at their new school commented “‘I love Head Start kids... they behave, they already have the basics.’” 

Head Start made an important difference in the lives of Sandra and her grandchildren. But life was still not entirely smooth sailing. Sandra and the teachers at Head Start noticed that Isaac seemed behind in his development. Sandra explained that it took him longer to sit, walk, and talk. He would scream to express himself and he even lashed out at a teacher and another student. Head Start evaluated Isaac and after hearing their family story and background, he was recommended to therapy. Head Start connected Sandra and her grandchildren to ECS Para Las Familias (PLF) and they signed up. 

Sandra and Isaac began working with Eladia, a PLF therapist. Isaac enjoyed therapy and “I noticed he matured,” Sandra said. “I was able to use the tools that Eladia showed me.” Although he started out frustrated with his inability to vocalize himself, “with the work and time he became able to calm down and to share,” Sandra said. 

Isaac made progress through his sessions, but Isabella needed help, too. Other children had started asking Sandra’s children questions about their family situation, putting them in a confusing situation. Other kids wanted to know why they lived with their grandma, why they had a foster mom, and why they got visits from their biological mom. But Isabella did not know the answers to these questions. “She was very confused about all this and adults talking and not understanding her story,” Sandra explained. 

PLF helped Isabella gain confidence in herself and understanding her family. May 2024.

Eladia told Sandra to gather all the pictures she had of the kids in the hospital, with the foster mom, with Sandra’s family, and with their biological mother. Sandra brought the pictures to PLF and described how Eladia “had these two blank books, and she wrote ‘my story’ for Isabella, and ‘my story’ for Isaac, and she put [the pictures of them] with their mom in the hospital, with the foster mom, the steps, and why they were not able to live with their mother.” Now, Isabella can confidently understand her situation. “Isabella’s not embarrassed, she’s very open,” Sandra said. “[Her friends] introduce me to their mothers they go ‘this is Isabella’s grandma. Isabella’s adopted.’ They all know.” Sandra expressed relief that she can openly discuss anything going on with her family without worrying what Isabella will overhear. “I can see that she’s more compassionate, more understanding,” Sandra said of her granddaughter. 

The photo albums were so impactful that Sandra shared the strategy with the grandparents' group she is a part of and encouraged them to also embrace honesty with the grandchildren they are raising. She explained that with the help of PLF, “[The children] are happy and well-adjusted even though they’re not with their bio mom.” 

PLF aided Sandra’s grandchildren in learning to share, cope, and understand. “All of that helped a lot,” Sandra said. “It gave me tools to guide them.” 

Recently, Sandra discovered that Isaac has anxiety. Sandra described how he was afraid of water, going to the bathroom alone, and trying new activities. His anxiety hindered his ability to participate and enjoy himself, and he even stopped eating enough. Sandra took Isaac back to PLF and together they worked with child and family therapist Margarita McFadden to learn coping strategies. Sandra now has the tools remind Isaac “stop, take a minute, breathe, calm down.” Over time, Isaac gained more confidence, became more open, and displayed more affection. “Now he’ll even put his feet in the ocean which he would never even go close to, but now he does,” Sandra said.  

PLF will continue to be a rock for Sandra and Isaac, as she has decided to enroll him in therapy every other year to help support him as he continues to grow. “I found it very very helpful, and you know, with anxiety, it’s never going to go away,” Sandra remarked. 

ECS gave Isabella and Isaac the foundation they need to succeed. *May 2024.

PLF made a big difference in Sandra’s family. She has applied the tools she’s learned at PLF with her other grandchildren, advised her other daughter to take her son to therapy, and recommended PLF to several families in her grandparents’ group. Sandra explained that PLF’s impact will be lifelong:  

“In the back of my mind always now is that I’m going to be 66 in May. And [Isabella and Isaac] are eight and nine. So, in 10 years I’ll be 76 and they’ll be 18... their chance of me living until they’re past 30 will be a miracle. So, I need to do what I can to make them strong, confident,” Sandra said.  

Sandra hopes that the lessons learned through PLF and Head Start will be lifelines for her grandchildren that will serve them even when she cannot.  

While her grandchildren attended Head Start, Sandra attended parent meetings for several years. Eventually, Head Start came to her when the ECS Board of Directors was in search of a Head Start parent to join the board. Sandra kept it simple: “I really loved Head Start for a lot of reasons, so I said ‘yeah.’” 

After joining, she explained how she wasn’t aware of the many programs under ECS. “I thought ‘wow, this is exciting.’ They run all these programs and I really felt like Head Start was a savior to me in a couple of ways. One, the childcare, the saving on expense of childcare. The fact that I felt comfortable and happy, and that my kids were safe, learning... I could see my kids were happy,” she said. 

Sandra enjoyed her two and a half years on the board, where she was able to share her firsthand experience as a Head Start parent, helping current parents and aiding the board in their decisions. Sandra continues to give back to ECS by serving on the Behavioral Health Committee, sponsoring a family in ECS’ annual Family-to-Family, and serving a dish at the CERRC Thanksgiving luncheon.  

Sandra commented that “I feel that the more people that love your baby, the better.” At ECS love and generosity is always prioritized with clients. Whether they be an infant at Head Start, an adult seeking SUD treatment, or anything in between, ECS offers support for community members. 

ECS’ mission is to break barriers and transform communities. Through children’s services, drug and alcohol treatment programs, and homeless services, ECS aims to uplift those in the San Diego community and strive for a brighter future. For more information on ECS or any of the individual programs visit www.ecscalifornia.org. 

*Caption dates may not be exact.

Strengthening Families with PLF

Hezekiah’s family poses for a picture at an ice rink. *February 2024.

SAN DIEGO – When a person or family comes to ECS for help, the goal is not to give them a band-aid and send them on their way but to provide them with resources and support that will last them a lifetime. Hezekiah, a former Para Las Familias (PLF) parent and current ECS board member, went through therapy at PLF with his two children, and although the family graduated from the program about three years ago, they can still see the impact in their lives today.  

Hezekiah has shared his family’s journey with the ECS community in the past, explaining how he went through a divorce and how that unexpected change, along with the COVID-19 pandemic, created extreme challenges for his children. 

“Our family was torn apart by that divorce,” Hezekiah said. “There was this kind of seismic shift that brought about immense heartache and turmoil into everyone’s life.” When presented with this challenge, he was unsure who to turn to or how to ask for help. “From one day to the next, you’re now a single parent,” Hezekiah said as he recalled how hard it was to watch his children process this change. The obstacles in front of them seemed too big to take on. “The consistency of the instability was replaced with confusion, anger, and an overwhelming sense of loss,” Hezekiah said. 

Hezekiah’s parents fostered several children during his childhood, so he was familiar with early childhood mental health services and the importance of forming a secure attachment. He had also heard of PLF years earlier when they were doing outreach. The situation he found himself in was challenging, but PLF was there when he and his family needed someone to turn to.  

Hezekiah’s daughter enjoys arts and crafts at school. *February 2024.

“Together with Para Las Familias, we began to rebuild these broken bonds and started to nurture this secure attachment that paved the way for feeling and a reversal of a lot of that trauma we had all endured,” Hezekiah said.  

Both of Hezekiah’s children benefited greatly from the services at PLF. His daughter used to have emotional outbursts and often isolated herself. Hezekiah shared how she used to struggle with transitions, making daily tasks like getting ready for school and entering her classroom each morning hard. “She refused it. She would yell and say, ‘I’m not going to go to school.’ And on the first day of kindergarten, she ran off, tore her clothes off, tried to hop the fence that same day and we had principals, teachers, everybody just running around. It looked like something out of a cartoon,” he said. “It was very challenging.” Now, with the work learned at PLF, her transition time to the classroom only takes a minute. His daughter can express herself, communicate her feelings, and has become what Hezekiah called a “model student” in the classroom.

His son deals with anxiety and the urge to achieve constant perfection. As a result, he used to become very upset at losing, but now he knows it doesn’t matter. Hezekiah recalled how, while watching a movie in which a character lost, his son said, “‘It doesn’t matter. What matters is that you helped people.’” These lessons that PLF has helped children learn at a young age are crucial for future relationships. 

Hezekiah’s son smiles while exploring the outdoors. *February 2024.

Hezekiah spoke about the importance of viewing disabilities and mental health with inclusivity and understanding, practices that PLF teaches. “Instead of trying to get those individuals with those disabilities to conform with our society, we need to be able to be more accommodating with them,” Hezekiah said. “ECS provided those lifetime tools to help him [his son] and help those individuals around him better support him.”  

During his experience with PLF, Hezekiah and his children developed a secure attachment style, which has guided their relationship in the years since therapy. When someone told the family to leave a place of worship because his daughter was crying, Hezekiah said “You know what, we’re going to wait here until she’s ready”... I think something changed in that moment… I think she knew that I was going to be with her through thick and thin, and I wasn’t going to take anybody else’s side.”  

Having patience, respecting dignity, and maintaining a healthy structure are key PLF lessons that Hezekiah applies daily. “I’ve never once had to raise my voice… they know that it’s coming out of a place of love,” he said. 

PLF Program Manager Leslie Manriquez-Jimenez and Transitional Age Youth (TAY) Program Manager Karla Alonso worked with the Hezekiah family as their therapists while they were going through the program. Regarding Hezekiah’s PLF parenting journey, Manriquez-Jimenez commented that he “really took the program, took the tools he learned here and went with it, and we can see the impact it had for years to come.” PLF aims to equip families with the tools to overcome obstacles not only in their present lives, but years into their futures. The therapists help parents develop a sense of confidence in themselves “and what that does is they test what works with their children and their relationship with that child so, whenever some new behavior comes up, they are able to show up for their kids and trust their intuition. They’re not trusting interventions; they're trusting their intuition and that’s what we’re helping them develop here,” Manriquez-Jimenez said. 

Hezekiah’s children smile together for a photo. *February 2024.

Since becoming the Program Manager at PLF, Manriquez-Jimenez has seen PLF nearly double the number of families they work with and expand to help children ages 6-12. She said, “We see that ripple effect going family-wide and community-wide. The more families we get to work with the more we get to hear them pass down what we teach them.” 

In 2022 Hezekiah became a member of the ECS Board of Directors. When asked to take on the role, Hezekiah responded “Whatever you need, I am forever indebted.” He expressed how glad he is to see the expansion of PLF’s program reach a larger age range of children. He enjoys the opportunities the board gives him to spread the word on what ECS offers and the impact of its programs, especially as a former client.  

“It’s okay to ask for help. We’re not alone in this journey. There are resources and people to support you and your kids through these difficult times that you’re going through,” Hezekiah said. “At Para Las Familias you’re not a number. You’re family. I’m quite positive of that. That embrace, and that desire for all of us to grow is there.” 

Para Las Familias (PLF) is an outpatient behavioral and mental health clinic that provides a range of bilingual early childhood mental health services to low-income children 0 to 12 years old. Therapists at PLF provide screening, assessment, family and group therapy, school observation, teacher/provider consultation, and parenting groups. In addition, PLF also provides adult mental health services and weekly parenting groups. For more information visit https://www.ecscalifornia.org/para-las-familias.  

*Caption dates may not be exact.

Episcopal Community Services Awarded $50,000 Prebys Foundation Grant for Youth Behavioral & Mental Health Initiatives

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

Episcopal Community Services Awarded $50,000 Prebys Foundation Grant
for Youth Behavioral & Mental Health Initiatives

San Diego, CA – Jan. 9, 2024 – Episcopal Community Services (ECS), an award-winning nonprofit organization committed to breaking barriers and transforming communities, proudly announces the receipt of a significant $50,000 grant from the Prebys Foundation. This generous contribution, earmarked for initiatives under ECS's Para Las Familias (PLF) program, represents a vote of confidence in the effectiveness and impact of ECS's work in the field of youth behavioral and mental health services.

ECS PLF will continue to change lives with the Presbys Foundation’s generous grant. January 2024.

The Prebys Foundation, a leading philanthropic organization in San Diego County, has recently allocated $30.6 million in grants across 147 organizations, demonstrating its dedication to visual and performing arts, medical research, healthcare, and youth success and financial stability. The substantial grant awarded to ECS aligns with the Foundation's focused efforts and underlines the critical role of mental health in fostering the development and well-being of young people within the community.

“This investment from The Prebys Foundation enables ECS to meet the growing demand for behavioral and mental health support for young children in our community,” said ECS CEO Elizabeth Fitzsimons. “ECS is grateful to the Foundation for recognizing this need and ECS’ role in delivering critical care to children and their caregivers.”

ECS Para Las Familias

Para Las Familias, a dedicated outpatient clinic, offers bilingual behavioral and mental health services to children in the under-resourced communities of the South Bay area. Focusing on the developmental needs of low-income children from birth to 12 years old, PLF plays a crucial role in their wellbeing. The recent grant stands to greatly enhance PLF's ability to extend its services and improve care quality, making a substantial impact on the lives of numerous children within these communities.

About Episcopal Community Services

ECS provides $38 million in comprehensive health and human services across the San Diego region. Through a range of wraparound programs encompassing early childhood education, mental and behavioral health, substance use disorder treatment, and homelessness services, ECS tailors its approach to meet each client’s unique needs. Annually supporting over 7,000 individuals, the organization leverages deep professional expertise and lived experiences to assist clients in realizing their full potential. To learn more about ECS’s transformative impact, please visit https://www.ecscalifornia.org/.

About Prebys Foundation

The Prebys Foundation is the largest independent private foundation in San Diego County, working tirelessly to create an inclusive, equitable, and dynamic future for all San Diegans. In 2023 alone, the foundation awarded 214 grants totaling over $57 Million across various sectors. Visit www.prebysfdn.org/ to learn more.

Media Contact:
Adrienne Wilkerson
ECS Communications Director
awilkerson@ecscalifornia.org. ###