Helping Hands Kinship Support

Services Program

Quarterly Newsletter February 2018

Recurring

Recurring

Victor Community Support Service Victor Community Support Services is a community-based focused agency which de-

livers mental health and family support services in the homes, schools and communi-

ties in which people live. VCSS delivers programs ranging from prevention and early

intervention programs to highly intensive home-based services designed to prevent

residential and other institutional placements. VCSS is focused on empowering peo-

ple of all ages to build upon their strengths and capacities to address the problems and

needs they have within their lives.

Each of the service sites within this organization share common goals and a treatment

philosophy grounded in the belief that children need families, and that support should

be provided in the communities where they live and attend school. VCSS offers a

multitude of services to a very extensive list of target populations residing in the com-

munities they serve. Some of the many services include: Wraparound, Specialty Men-

tal Health Services, Therapeutic Behavioral Services, Foster Care Assessment and

Treatment, Juvenile Justice Assessment and Treatment, 0-5 Services, Co-Occurring

Disorders Treatment, Prevention and Early Intervention, and School-Based Services.

VCSS has a comprehensive array of Evidence Based Practices as the foundation for

its wide variety of community-based mental health services and strives to help chil-

dren and their families succeed in their home and school environments.

Victorville Campus

15400 Cholame Rd

Victorville, CA 92392

Phone: 760-245-4695

San Bernardino

1908 Business Ctr. Dr., Suite 220

San Bernardino, CA 92408

United States

(909) 890-5930

http://www.victor.org/victor-community-support-services

Locations:

West Region Office 316 East “E” St.

Ontario, CA 91764 Phone: (909) 986-9710

Fax: (909) 988-0964

Serving: Alta Loma. Chino. Chino Hills, Fontana, Montclair, Ontario.

Rancho Cucamonga, Rialto & Upland

North Desert Region Office:

16519 Victor St. Suite 404 Victorville, CA 92395

Phone: (760) 843-1177 Fax: (760) 843-1191

Serving: Adelanto, Apple Valley, Barstow, Yucca Valley, Big Bear,

Hesperia & Victorville

http://www.mhsinc.org/helping-hands-

ntario

“No one saves us but ourselves, no one

can and no one may.

We ourselves must walk the path.”

– Hindu Prince

Gautama Siddharta

Home Office: 9465 Farnham Street,

San Diego, CA 92123

P (858) 573-2600

F (858) 573-2602

mhsinc.org

Helping Hands Kinship Newsletter

Contributors– Dawn Van Zant,

Yesenia Espinoza, Victoria Hardy &

Elizabeth Sandoval

The Department of Aging and Adult Services (DAAS) is a San Bernardino agency

dedicated to helping seniors and at-risk individuals to improve or maintain choice,

independence and quality of life. The department works to ensure seniors and adults

with disabilities have the right to age in place in the least restrictive environment!

DAAS Administration Office is located at:

784 E. Hospitality Lane, San Bernardino, CA 92415

Administration Office telephone number is:

909-891-3900

17270 Bear Valley Rd #108, Victorville, CA 92395

(760) 243-8400

http://hss.sbcounty.gov/daas/Default.aspx

Thank You! Thank You! Thank You! This Holiday Season we were blessed by so many donations and assis-

tance from our communities… We would like to thank all of you from

the bottom of our hearts for making this season an even brighter one for

our families...We are all very appreciative! Thank you so much!

For Thanksgiving we received food donations from these wonderful organiza-

tions…Thank you!: West Side Children & Family Services, Panera Bread,

Starbucks, Olive Garden, Silver Lakes Women’s Golf Club, Mr. & Mrs. Villalpon-

do, Red Lobster, Jack In The Box, RAD, Stater Bros., Food 4 Less.

Thank you for your Donations during Christmas!

Starbucks, Chipotle, Jack In The Box, Olive Garden, Panera Bread, Silver Lakes

Women’s Golf Club, Mr. & Mrs. Villalpondo, Mr. & Mrs. Sanchez, Children’s

Fund of San Bernardino, Another Level For Women’s Ministry.

Thank you so much from Helping Hands

Kinship Support Services and staff.

From left to right: Victoria Hardy, Yesenia

Espinoza, Elizabeth Sandoval & Dawn

Van Zant.

Caregiver Corner

Verlena Harvey- North Desert Region

Verlena Harvey is Jannah Lawrence Great, Great Aunt, started caring for her when she was in kindergar-

ten, now she is in the 6th grade. Jannah’s mom and grandmother were driving to Lake Elsinore, drinking

and doing drugs, when they flipped the car. Jannah was put in foster care. Later Jannah was given back to

mom, with hopes that she would get her life back together. Jannah’s mother did not do nor follow

through with what the courts were asking her to do, and she Ran. Jannah’s mother asked Verlena if she

would take Jannah.

Her biggest challenge as a caregiver is dealing with Jannah’s bio parents. Velena has taken Jannah as one

of her own and makes her feel comfortable. Since being enrolled in Helping Hands Kinship, Verlena has

learned how to deal with kiddos again. The workshops she has attended have thought her how to have

patience and she wishes she had the knowledge she now has when she had her own bio children.

When asked if she could change anything what would it be, she said she wouldn’t change anything. She

is very thankful. Verlena would like to tell other caregivers to be patient with Kin-children. “They Love

their parents, be patient”. She would also like to add to talk a lot with the kiddos. Five years from now

she would like……..More happy, for Jannah to finish High School and go to college. She is trying so

hard, and Verlena is happy to accomplished this with her. Verlena thanks God and she feels blessed to be

able to care for Jannah.

Martha Montenegro– West Region

Martha is taking care of her grandson since January 2017. She became a caregiver when her daughter de-

cided to leave her son at her house and told her she will come back to get him and never came back to get

him. She will call once every 3 months or maybe less. She says her biggest challenge was to start all over

again to take care of small children because her youngest son is 17 years old. It is very hard for her finan-

cially and psychologically, plus she does not have the patience she had when her biological children were

babies. She thinks her family has grown in a way that she feels she is happier now for having her grand-

son living with her because in the past she was worried about her grandson’s future without his biological

mother. Now her and her family feel more confident because they have move on and now they think in a

positive way.

She says she had gained more confidence and feels more positive now that she is involved with Helping

Hands Kinship because she was depressed, and would worry about what would she do with her grandson

because its expensive to raise a child. She now feels better because now she knows that there is help out

there and she is not alone. She says her favorite memory with Helping Hands was the toy drive we did in

December because it was a blessing for her grandson and her family because her grandson was able to

get toys she could not buy for him at that moment. She also stated that if she could change anything she

would change her impatience for having more patience with her family. She stated that as a caregiver tak-

ing care of a small child she wants to tell other caregivers to keep themselves busy whenever they are

upset or stressed, read a book, or keep themselves busy when they are getting upset to avoid escalating

the behavior. She stated that five years from now she wants to buy a house, so her grandson can have a

room for himself and a backyard to play.

Caregiver Corner features kin-caregivers from Helping Hands in the West End and North Desert

Regions. This is a great way to get acquainted with and to acknowledge the efforts of our kin-

caregivers.