June 2019

Exciting news & announcements from 
Sierra Association of Foster Families

Children's Advocacy Alliance Presents:

How to register...
The Dinner provided is FREE for those who participate. SEATING IS LIMITED.

We are asking for those planning on attending to RSVP to Washoecounty.yab@gmail.com or dashun.jackson@caanv.org or by phone at 702.228.1869 no later than 5PM on June 24, 2019.

Youth attending will receive a stipend $$$!!

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Sierra Association of Foster Families is not affiliated with Children's Advocacy Alliance or it's partners. This is informational only and does not indicate endorsement or participation.

Here's an opportunity from our friends
at Community Foundation.

COMBINING COLORFUL ILLUSTRATIONS
WITH COLORING ACTIVITIES WITH SIMPLE STORIES...

CHILDREN (+parents, grandparents, and teen siblings)... 
CAN ACTIVELY PARTICIPATE IN EDUCATIONAL
AND INSPIRATIONAL CREATIVITY

Children and teens come into the foster care system because of abuse, abandonment, and neglect by adults.

These youths don't get to have the fun other kids do.

Many of their futures included homelessness.

More than enough end up being incarcerated.

Too many end up ill from malnourishment or drugs or unable to afford basic health care.

They didn't get the fun and loving childhoods they deserved.

BUT OUR PROGRAMS AT SAFF LEAD THEM TO SUCCESS AND HAPPINESS!

Our In-Home/After School Program gives them the education they need to graduate!

Our Financial Literacy Coaching program teaches them about $$$ and finds them scholarships and helps pay their rent and food.

Our Vocational Instruction Program prepares them for careers.

Our Power Box Creative Play programs teaches them how to feel powerful, strong, healthy, and creative.

We help them swing high with happiness, health, and success!

Three of our projects in development are THE COLORING BOOK DELIVERY TRAIN which presents stories, illustrations, and black/white drawings the kids can color on the environment, safety, history, friendships, and family relationships.

and... THE JOURNEY OF NEVADA'S DISPLACED CHILDREN tells the story - by which children can color - of Nevada's orphanage and foster care system since 1863 when President Lincoln gave a group of Irish nuns in Virginia City a 5 dollar bill to help the 400 orphans of miners.​

and THE POWER BOX - children of all ages participate in events decorating large cardboard projects with photographs, drawings, and other art work depicting what and whom helps them to be strong, compassionate, healthy, loving, hopeful, and successful)

CLICK on photos to enlarge

Bringing Families Together

by JACKIE SHELTON
April 10, 2019 21:40pm
Joseph Galata grew up in the woods outside of Pennsylvania in sheer poverty, but he says his family gave him three things: a sense of identity, a sense of belonging and unconditional love.
It is these three things he has spent most of his life sharing with other people, as a single father of three grown children, grandfather to two (with one on the way), a university faculty member, a representative to the NGO Social-Economic Council of the United Nations, a television and radio journalist, an arts and media education specialist, a grief counselor, an international keynote speaker and a seminar facilitator. 
For the last 10 years, his focus has been on the Sierra Association of Foster Families (SAFF), where he serves as the executive director. The mission of SAFF is to use education to help people thrive — children and teens in foster care, but their birth and foster parents as well.

CLICK HERE FOR FULL STORY

SAFF’s Power Box Day was so much fun with all the kids and foster- adoptive parents!

We decorated cardboard boxes with photos and drawings of what makes each of us feel mentally, physically, emotionally powerful! A nutritionist taught us how to prepare a fruit and salad lunch with no sugar deserts. We had a blast!!!!

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ARTS AND SOCIAL JUSTICE:
​EXCERPTS FROM JOSEPH'S SOLO THEATRE SHOWS
​MUSIC COMPOSED BY  MANO

MANO  is a composer of Flamenco, Persian, and other types of music - always weaving throughout his music the energies of love, hope, and compassion even within times of difficulty.

Joseph’s performance about a grandpa with Alzheimer’s and his grandson was made possible by generous funding from the Nevada State Arts Council and the National Endowment of the Arts ​

This just in! CLICK to HEAR:
​The Power Box Voices of the Past

This audio recording - performed by professional actors - presents the voices of four Jewish Nevada heroes and heroines in the state's past who have made significant contributions to humanity.

Albert Michelson - the first American to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for measuring the speed of light

Felice Cohen - Nevada's first female lawyer and who was responsible for the 1914 amendment to the Nevada Constitution giving women the right to vote

Jacob Davis - the designer of blue jeans

Pauline Bergenstein - with her husband developed and reform Nevada's medical laws

We produced this program to help children and teens refrain from developing anti-Semitic beliefs and behaviors as well as empowering youths to stand firm with the Defiant Power of the Human Spirit when bullied.

The comic panels that can be found on the website also tell these four characters stories - in comic drawings - a wonderful educational tool.

AmazonSmile Foundation

Remember, SAFF is a 501c3 non profit organization, which means financial donations  are tax deductible to the full extent of the law! We thank our funders and donors who help to keep our programs growing in success.

Amazon Smile is a wonderful way to donate. Log on and find out more! SAFF receives no federal funding and relies solely on your generosity and caring.

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