Workforce Development Student Recognized in Pittsburgh Pirate All Star Awards

Holy Family Institute Workforce Development student Dakota participated in the HFI 12-week program where he participated in hands-on job training as well as career and formation skills including interpersonal skills, teamwork, computer skills and business behavior. As part of this program, staff assisted Dakota in applying for a position with the Pittsburgh Pirates facilities team, and was hired.

The management at PNC Park was so impressed with Dakota’s work ethic that he was awarded a Pittsburgh Pirate All Star Award. He received this award because he displayed outstanding guest relations exceeding the expectations of his position. Pirate President Frank Coonlley and Executive VP of Facility Dennis Dupre presented the awards on April 26, 2011 at PNC Park.

25th Anniversary Drive for HFI Golf Classic

We are proud to celebrate 25 years of accomplishments with our many friends and supporters who have strengthened Holy Family’s mission of bringing hope and healing to children and families.

Please join us on August 1, 2011 with Committee Chair John Banaszak and long-time Holy Family supporter Marlyn Carle at Montour Heights Country Club for a 9:00 a.m. shotgun start to our 25^th Anniversary Drive for HFI Golf Classic.

There are a variety of sponsorship levels available at this year’s event. Holy Family supporter Ray Pronto and Highmark, Inc. are this year’s 25^th Anniversary Title Sponsors.

We encourage you to invite your family members and spouses to dinner if they are unable to golf. There will be special presentations during our dinner to celebrate this quarter century of success.

For questions or to register, contact Christa Cardone at 412-766-9020 x439 or at cardone.christa@hfi-pgh.org.

HFI Cathy Pelusi Art Studio Featured at Three Rivers Arts Festival

Artwork from March’s “Women In Art” display at the HFI Cathy Pelusi Art Studio was featured in this year’s Three Rivers Arts Festival.

This display includes over 100 pieces of artwork created by female artists at Holy Family, including residential female students, the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth, Holy Family employees, and volunteers. Through the process of creating beautiful artwork, children are provided a safe and productive way to express themselves and their feelings.

“Women In Art” will be on display until Sunday, June 12 at the Trust Education Center. For details and show times, please click here.

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SNAP Program Recognized for Helping Boys and Girls

It’s a SNAP: Techniques that reduce aggression in boys work for girls, too

Thursday, June 09, 2011
By Mary Niederberger, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

It was a therapy session for a group of six girls ages 6-8 that many adult females might find valuable.

The girls sat around a table eating snacks and talking about the high points and low points — labeled good things and hard things — that happened during their week.

The hard things included having a test, having a sibling or classmate tease them or simply having to get up to go to school. Some of the good things included being good in school, getting invited to a birthday party and going to school without a fight.

The group then followed with discussions and analysis of how each member could better handle difficult situations, along with some role playing. It wrapped up with the girls giving each other compliments and participating in a period of relaxation and visualization.

The girls are participants in the Stop Now and Plan, or SNAP, program for girls operated by the Holy Family Institute at its McKees Rocks center and by the Auberle center in McKeesport.

Success with boys
The SNAP program, developed by the Child Development Institute in Toronto, has been used so successfully by Auberle and Holy Family Institute in recent years to reduce aggressive behavior in boys that this year, the organizations decided to start programs for girls.

The programs are open to girls ages 6-11 who show signs of aggressive behavior and defiance of authority. The girls can be referred by school personnel, juvenile justice or youth officials or parents. They are divided by age, with ages 6-8 separated from ages 9-11.

The program entails 12 weeks of group therapy for groups of seven girls and their parents, who meet separately. It’s followed with visits by program workers to the girls’ homes and schools for as long as needed.

Auberle, which started its program a year ago, has served girls from the Clairton, McKeesport Area, Duquesne, Gateway, West Mifflin, Woodland Hills and South Allegheny school districts.

Holy Family, which started its program in January, has served girls from the Pittsburgh Public Schools and Sto-Rox districts and from other districts north and west of the city.

Both Auberle and Holy Family provide transportation for those who live within a 30-minute drive, but those who live farther are welcome if they can provide their own transportation.

The program’s success in reducing aggressive behavior in boys prompted Allegheny County Juvenile Probation Department last year to pick up its funding.

Now, both Auberle and Holy Family Institute are hoping to have similar success with girls.

Teaches self-control
The initial reaction from school officials is that it is working.

“I think it has done an amazing job in teaching them how to use self-control and to slow down and think about their actions and the consequences to their actions,” said Cory Kunicky, a guidance counselor at George Washington Elementary in McKeesport. “It also teaches them about connectedness, the sisterhood of being girls.”

Program organizers said the girls SNAP groups work differently from the boys in that the girls require more one-on-one time and a major component of the program is developing a positive relationship between the girls and their mothers or other female caretakers.

With boys, the issues of aggression are largely physical. But with the girls referred to the program, a good deal of the aggression is social.

“Girls have some aggression, but there are also a lot of bullying behaviors that are social,” said Patricia Shaw, SNAP program manager at Holy Institute. “I have one girl I can think of, and she is definitely a social bully. She is trying to get the other kids to do what she wants them to do. It’s not about beating them up; it’s about power.”

Girls talk it out
While it’s sometimes difficult to get the boys to open up in discussions during therapy sessions, the girls appear to be more willing to talk.

“The girls will spill it out. They want to tell you everything,” said Timmisha Moore, a child worker with Auberle’s SNAP for girls.

The therapy groups are highly structured, with two facilitators leading the girls through their discussions and exercises. Each girl has written her goal and each week, in front of the group, assesses how well she worked toward achieving that goal.

Among the goals of the Holy Family Institute group are:

• “Not to hit my brothers when they tease me.”

• “Not to fight with siblings and mom.”

• “To stop kicking people at school and telling them they are ugly.”

• “To not throw things when angry.”

If the initial goal is achieved, the girls set new goals.

One girl talked about how she reacted when her brother teased her:

“I took a deep breath, counted to 10 and told him to stop,” she said.

Another girl explained how she walked away from a frustrating situation rather than lashing out.

During one part of the discussion, the girls analyzed the signals their body sends to them when they are starting to get angry. They realized that their hands ball up, their hearts race, their faces turn red, their eyes well up with tears and sometimes their bodies shake.

Teaching the girls to recognize the physical warnings — or “body alerts” — of anger or resentment is a big part of the therapy, said Brandi Hudson, SNAP program coordinator at Holy Family Institute.

“Once they understand what is happening, they can do something specific to calm themselves down,” Ms. Hudson said.

Role playing is an integral part of the weekly 90-minute sessions. The girls act out scenarios they have been involved in or perhaps have seen on the playground at school, where one student is aggressive or mean toward another. The girl, who is the victim in the skit, talks about how the action makes her feel and what she plans to do to calm herself down or to diffuse the situation.

In some cases, the girls use the relaxation and calming methods taught to them, such as counting to 10 or taking deep breaths.

In other cases, they choose to report the situation to an adult.

SNAP rules require that no solution can involve hurting another in any way.

The skits are videotaped and then played for the girls to analyze.

After the girls’ group therapy sessions, the parents meet separately for their sessions, with the agencies providing meals and child care for the girls.

As with the girls, the parents learn strategies to de-escalate situations with their defiant daughters.

“Every time I go there, I come away with more information,” said Melcon Huger, of the North Side, whose daughter is participating in the Holy Family group. “I’m learning to control myself so I won’t scream and holler and use profanity at her and hurt her feelings. I’m learning to be calm and think about the words I want to use with her.”

Mr. Huger said his daughter is halfway through her therapy program, and he has seen some improvement both at home and in school. He’s hoping for more by the end of the 12 weeks.

Renee Owens of Duquesne participated in the program at Auberle with her 11-year-old stepdaughter earlier this year. Ms. Owens said her stepdaughter had been through a number of therapy programs for her defiant behavior and other issues without success before the SNAP program.

Ms. Owens said she didn’t hold out any hope that SNAP would help her stepdaughter and didn’t even go to her first parent group therapy session.

“But once I tried it, I loved it. It was very beneficial, and the women who run the program are wonderful,” she said, adding that her stepdaughter has “done a turnaround” in her behavior.

“I think because there were other kids close to her age with problems similar to hers, it helped,” Ms. Owens said. “I think the support from the other kids really helped.”

Mary Niederberger: mniederberger@post-gazette.com or 412-851-1512.

First published on June 9, 2011 at 12:00 am

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