This fall Alma Community Care launched her Parenting Seminar program at a third school site in our community of Greater Logan Heights! Through a grant we received earlier this year from the city of San Diego, we were able to approach the school in June of this year about starting a new round of seminars on their campus starting in September. Within minutes of introducing myself and Alma, the school counselor asked, “When can you start?” We were off to a warm eager welcome at our new school.
This semester alone, we had four parenting seminars at our third school site, and I want to tell you a story about, Rosa, one of the moms who attended one of these seminars.
While we were inviting parents outside the school as they dropped their student’s off that morning, Rosa let us know that she needed to do something at home, but would come right back to attend once she was finished. To our surprise, she came back about 30 minutes later and eagerly engaged in the seminar on the topic of Positive Discipline Tactics. As the morning went on, she asked the presenter, “How do I parent my twins? My husband recently passed away, and I don’t know how to be both their mother and their father?” Rosa’s husband died of cancer having been diagnosed only three months before. His death came suddenly, and Rosa was struggling to grieve and parent at the same time.
At the end of morning she told me how much the parenting seminar had meant to her. Her twins had just started at that school, and she was new to the community. She was lost in a sea of grief and was having a hard time processing how much her life had changed in the last few months. She told me the topic that morning was exactly what she needed to learn about and she was very thankful for our program.
Alma’s parenting seminars are offered at our local schools because we know they are our community’s gathering places. With almost a third of our community under the age of 18, we have the greatest opportunity to make an impact on our families at our local schools.
As you celebrate the Christmas season with friends and family, I want to thank you for giving your time, energy and money in 2019 – you have made it possible for Alma Community Care to bring healing, help and hope to our community!
If you are interested in donating to Alma Community Care, you can do so here.