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Organization
The family mentoring concept was conceived by Dr. Brenda
Holland, a practicing clinical psychologist in Delta County,
in 1998. Dr. Holland organized a group of professionals and
citizens concerned about children to initiate a new type of
community-based help for children. The idea of helping
children through families that mentor had never been tried.
Not only were mentors going to be families, but they were
going to be families that made a permanent commitment to the
child with the help of a mental health care professional.
This new family mentoring idea caught on quickly because of
the neighborly spirit here in our sparsely-populated,
agricultural-based community. Prevention of youth problems
was the goal. Within five years, almost thirty-five children in
Delta County had been matched with these permanent mentoring
families.
The program grew and spread to Montrose County, and then went
through several organizational name changes, resulting in the
separate Delta County group know today as FAMILIES PLUS.
Delta County has been fertile ground for the development of
this new, close-to-home strategy for preventing delinquency,
school drop out, substance abuse, teenage pregnancy, and
youth prevention and suicide. With research on family
mentoring now underway, this opportunity for a positive,
rich childhood could become widely available.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
| Mike Dodson |
President |
| Elaine Lang |
Vice President |
| Larry Donathan |
Secretary |
| Beverly Gardner |
Treasurer |
| Diana Matus |
Member |
| Dawn Reeder |
Member |
STAFF
| Brenda K. Holland, Ph.D. |
Executive Director |
| Lee Smith |
Office Manager |
| Dave Shishim |
Director of Outreach |
| Tom Fried, MA, LPC |
Mental Health
Professional |
115
Grand Ave. Ste. 2 - Delta, Colorado - 81416 - (970)874-0464
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