Bringing CARE into the Community

Chelsea Hernandez, a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW) with nearly 10 years of clinical experience working with children and families, now serves as All Star’s new clinical director.

Chelsea is already covering a lot of ground this year by leading Trauma 101 presentations and co-facilitating Child Adult Relationship Enhancement (CARE) training for staff and volunteers. Additionally, Chelsea co-facilitates the Resource Parenting Curriculum (RPC) for local foster parents, both on All Star’s campus and out in the community.

All of these trainings and presentations bring evidence-based and compassionate caregiver/parenting tools to foster parents and those who work with children. The more trauma-informed caregivers in the community, the more support and successful outcomes children will experience. These opportunities are one of the things that makes All Star innovative in their approach to foster care.

“These trainings have made me more aware of how childhood trauma impacts a child’s mental and emotional health. CARE especially taught me techniques to help children feel more comfortable and able to form meaningful connections.” 

– All Star Volunteer

Science

Research Update

Many new things await All Star Children’s Foundation in the new year, and our first Graduate Research Assistant is one of them! Sumitra Sankarasubramanian is a New College of Florida student working toward her Master’s degree in Applied Data Science. She is doing her practicum at All Star and will graduate in May of 2022. Sumitra is organizing data from children who received evidence-based services from All Star from 2019-2021, studying the impact of those services from initial intake through 3 months, and noting room for improvement.

“I choose to work with All Star as I would like to contribute my knowledge and skills to the child welfare field.”

– Sumitra Sankarasubramanian

Compassion

All Star’s campus has always been pet-friendly. In fact, every foster family thus far has had at least 1 dog live with them! Knowing how much the children love animals, we’ve connected with the Humane Society of Sarasota County and PAWS, a program through the Child Protection Center, to bring therapy dogs to visit our Campus of Hope and Healing. The children’s faces light up when they see the different dogs make their way around campus. The kids get to pet, snuggle, and brush the dogs, which the dogs love, too! It makes for a very relaxing, pleasant interaction for all.

For the cat lovers, All Star has a great partnership with Cat Depot. Their humane educator, Ellie (who is also an All Star volunteer!) has come to campus to teach the kids about being a good caregiver for a companion animal, how to gently interact with a pet, and how everyone can help animals.

Special Giving Opportunity 
with the Flanzer Philanthropic Trust

You can help change lives! With your tax-deductible donation to All Star, your matched funds of up to $500 will create brighter futures for children in foster care. The donation match opportunity is monthly. Visit the link to donate today: https://bit.ly/AllStarFlanzerMatch

We are so grateful to the Flanzer Philanthropic Trust for supporting our community and our mission!