Adopt-A-Family

Posted by Home Start's Development Coordinator, Nicole Graichen

San Diego County is home to families who struggle daily to meet their children's most basic needs. Too many families live only one event away from irrevocable loss through child abuse or violence, a preventable childhood illness, poor access to health care, or the devastating absence of a parent. Many struggle to escape the relentless, punishing stresses of poverty and their subsequent inability to provide a stable, secure home for their children.

For these families, Home Start provides a continuum of care. The professional help provided by our dedicated staff through home visits or our neighborhood resource centers is often the critical human contact these struggling families need to prevent tragedy and move toward a healthy, more promising future.

The holiday season is quickly approaching and, through our annual Adopt-A-Family Campaign and Holiday Drive, Home Start invites you to join us in giving our most disadvantaged families a wonderful reason to celebrate during this difficult time. 

For many struggling families, serving a special holiday meal or providing gifts to their children is well beyond their reach. However, with the support from charitable people like you throughout our region, Home Start has been able to bring a smile to the faces of many children and their parents. You can create a meaningful holiday for a family in need by joining us in this effort.

This is an immediate opportunity to offer support and compassion to deserving families when they need it most -- and when it could provide an uplifting "boost" to help them accomplish their goal for a healthier, happier life. 

We hope you will participate as a 2010 sponsor!

Click here for the participation form!! You can also call Nicole at 619-692-0727 ext. 113 or send her an email at ngraichen@home-start.org.

Joanha's Success Story

Posted by Home Start Marketing Committee Member, Lisa DeMarco

Joanha is a 17 year old single mother living in a small apartment in San Diego with her parents and two elementary aged brothers. She was just your ordinary teenage girl working hard in school, hanging out with friends and trying to prepare herself for college when she got life altering news; she was pregnant at the age of 16. She was terrified, sad and afraid of disappointing her parents. Another major concern was telling her brothers who were only 7 and 9 because she is their role model and they look up to her for guidance.

Joanha did not tell her parents she was expecting until she was 8 months pregnant. Additionally, because she was scared and felt she had no where to turn, she did not receive any pre-natal care during her pregnancy. Just one week after giving birth to a beautiful and healthy baby boy, a nurse referred Joanha to Home Start where she was introduced to her case manager. Immediately,

Joanha was successfully enrolled in health insurance, was provided critical infant care instruction and much needed emotional support. Her case manager helped Joanha get past the overwhelming feeling of failure and helped her to understand that she can still have a future. She also shared with Joanha many essential community resources and parenting tools that she would benefit from as a young teen mother.

Currently Joanha is caring for her child while finishing her senior year of high school and will graduate in June. After graduation she plans on going to college at San Diego State University and continuing parenting classes through Home Start. She is now a confident mother who is enjoying her child and focusing on creating a stable and bright future for herself and her son.

Profile of Marketing Committee Member, Erich Foeckler

Erich Foeckler, CFR

Director of Development and Marketing

Hometown: Born in Omaha, Nebraska

Fun Facts: I was a former barber and power plant operator and lived in Oklahoma for 10 years. My most interesting job was at Disneyland where I was the Director of Photography for characters and the guests.

How long have you lived in San Diego?: I’ve lived in San Diego for the past 23 years with the exception of a 2 year move to Long Beach.

Why do you support Home Start?: Home Start’s mission helping children and families is very dear to my heart. I grew up in a poor neighborhood where there was lots of poverty and abuse all around. It’s very satisfying to be giving back in this way.

Community Involvement: I currently serve on the Board of Directors for the San Diego Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals.

3rd Annual Happy Hallo-Wine Event, Huge Success!!

3^rd Annual Happy Hallo-Wine, HUGE Success!!

Posted by Spencer Dettman, Home Start Board Member

Home Start hosted its 3rd Annual Hallo-Wine event this Tuesday the 12th @ The Dana on Mission Bay - what a huge success in the fight against child abuse here in San Diego!

Click this link to watch our Hallo-Wine video recorded LIVE that evening:

2010 Hallo-Wine Video

For those of you that were there (thanks so much), see if you can find yourself in the video.  Those of you that weren't there - hopefully this video will get you excited to join us next year!

A special THANK YOU to our 130 attendees, vendors and sponsors - without their generous contribution of both time and money, this event would not be possible.

Vendors Included:

Barefoot Wines & Bubbly, Rock Canyon Vineyards, PRP Wine International, Breakwater Brewing Co., Wiens Family Cellars, Hans & Harry’s Bakery Corp., La Serenissima Vineyard & Winery, Edible Arrangements, Stone Brewing, St. Petersburg Vodka, and Flowers by Coley.

Sponsors Included:

US Bank (Title Sponsor), Union Bank (Gold Sponsor), San Diego County Credit Union (Silver Sponsor), AutoAnything.com, San Diego Union-Tribune, John S. Baker & Associates, and Ron Oster & Jeff Discher/Ascent Realty.

Thanks again to all for attending this event - you mean the world to all of us here at Home Start and to the children of San Diego!  Tonight you all truly made a difference!

Intern Diaries-Just Getting Started

Posted by Home Start Intern-Nicole K.

Well, I’m just over a month into my internship here at Home Start, and I’m still looking forward to seeing my first client!  It’s not for anyone’s lack of trying, I simply keep getting referrals that require a great deal of leg work in terms of getting consent to treat, and sometimes I have an intake scheduled and I just get stood up!

Before I applied here, I had heard that the people here at Home Start were really nice, but I didn’t realize how true that was until I got here. Everyone is supportive and helpful, and I have to say that in all of my 32 years I’ve never had the pleasure of working in such a positive environment. I know the pace of my work here will pick up shortly, but it sure is nice to come to work knowing that I can talk to folks, and that if I have a question there will be somebody around willing to help me find an answer.

I am still finding it difficult to remember the names of the many programs offered by and through Home Start, not to mention all the acronyms. I’m hoping that this gets easier with time. I will be co-facilitating an Adult Survivors of Child Abuse (ASCA) group starting this week. I am preparing myself for an intense but rewarding experience, and I can’t wait to put some of this knowledge I’ve acquired in the classroom to good use.

Meet Anthony Bollotta, Home Start Board of Directors President

Posted by Nicole Graichen- Board Member Profile

Anthony Bollotta

President of Bollotta Entertainment

Home Start Board President

Board Member Since October 2007

Hometown: I was born in Miami Beach, and as it seems to go down in those parts, the hospital in which I was delivered was torn down to make room for a smashing new condo development.
Favorite Food: Pizza! There isn’t anything better... Except milk chocolate.

Fun Facts: There are so many. Let’s see.... To start, I was, as my parents say affectionately, “a mistake.” So much so that my mother wouldn’t speak to my father for three months upon finding out she was pregnant with me. Here’s another... When I was in college, I got to perform as a supernumerary with the American Ballet Theatre, starring Mikhail Baryshnikov. And yet another... In the late 1990’s I sang a duet with the late, great Nell Carter at a show for the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club.. And one more... When I was a toddler, my older sister and brother would hang over my playpen, calling me stupid. One night, when my mom and so mentioned siblings were out, I asked my father for a bottle using the vocabulary they had taught me. “Hey stupid,” I said, “Get me a bottle.” Suffice it to say, that was the first and last time I called my father stupid.
How long have you lived in San Diego?: On November 12, 2010 it will be 19 years!

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Why do you support Home Start?: Home Start’s focus is on protecting children from abuse by strengthening families through cutting-edge therapies, counseling, education, and other services, and I cannot think of a more compelling reason than the children.

How did you get involved with the Board of Directors?: I had served on the YMCA Youth & Family Services board of management. When Laura Mustari, who was the Executive Director of the YMCA YFS left to come to Home Start, I followed her. She’s an effective, passionate leader, and I wanted to continue supporting her efforts.

Community Involvement: In addition to Home Start, I am a Big Brother with BBBS of San Diego County. I joined the program in 2003. That’s when I met my “little,” Najja, who today is a freshman in college. He also stands taller than me, which makes calling him “my little” a bit awkward. Through my business, I also support local organizations that promote the wellbeing of individuals regardless of ethnicity, gender, religion or sexual orientation.