Cat in the Hat Visits Hillside

Anniversaries exemplify employee loyalty

At Hillside, we recognize the significant fact that many of our staff choose to dedicate their careers to helping families by continuing their employment at our organization year after year. In gratitude, we celebrate them and reflect on the many youth and families they have touched in service. Anniversary celebrations happen of both large and small scale across the organization. I was fortunate to learn of one such celebration that happened in January, honoring those staff members in Hillside Children's Center reaching milestone anniversaries above 5 years in 2011. Thank you, Karen Zandi, HCC Executive Director, for sharing your photo, and for reminding me what wonderful colleagues I work alongside! The names of some of our dedicated staff, along with their anniversaries, are listed below. If you want to join our Hillside family, check out our employment openings at: www.hillside.com/employment.aspx.

Online Help for Youth in Crisis at Facebook

Help is now available for youth in crisis who are connecting on social media sites. Lifeline has established an innovative partnership with Facebook to offer crisis services via a chat portal within this social media platform. This is part of a continuing effort to expand online crisis services to reach people where they are "networking." Instructions on how to access this service via Facebook are available here.

Hillside's Medical Director comments on cyber bullying

Excerpt from "Social media show many responses to girl's death" in December 2 issue of Democrat and Chronicle

Teenage risk-taking behavior and the anonymity of the Internet may have fueled the hateful, hurtful comments left on social media pages right after the death of Spencerport High School freshman . . .

On Wednesday, pages on sites such as Facebook were filled with personal attacks. Even though Ogden police said Thursday there was no credible evidence that the teen's death was related to bullying, postings added to speculation that she had been a victim.

Dr. Stuart Loeb, medical director of Hillside Children's Center, said that bullying is a form of risk-taking behavior. "It doesn't require judgment. It satisfies a kind of urge." Loeb said that instant communication, lack of adult supervision and the ability for teens to hide their identity on the Internet leads to Lord of the Flies in cyberspace.

"The children are out there and organizing themselves," he said.

But they aren't on an island.

HW-SC-PGC Executive Director shares leadership insights

(Reprinted from HSC-Insight)

Going for Nonprofit Greatness!

"Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness is largely a matter of conscious choice, and discipline." -- Jim Collins

We seem to live in a world where having your name on the tip of everyone's tongue, or having a million 'friends' or 'followers' defines greatness. That may be true for some, but not for others.

At the end of the day, being a great nonprofit comes down to being of great service to others. Whether we meet the needs of few or of many, every organization I know is doing everything possible to meet the needs of their community. That's the goal. But, what happens to greatness when the goal gets obscured by changes in the economy, or shifts in governing leadership, or even challenges within our own offices? Then, it's time to check ourselves. It's time to see if we have what it takes-on the inside--to make it in this world.

We look for things like confidence. Unlike arrogance, confidence simply tells us that (when properly, consistently applied) our own skills, experience and abilities will help us endure the most adverse conditions and come out on the other side. That knowing comes from preparedness. We can use every relationship and interaction to develop ways of thinking and behaving that make us stronger than the rest. Over time, we become aware of a greater sense of self-control. We neither overreact nor hide our head in the sand. We just do what needs to be done.

In my role as Executive Director of Hillside Work-Scholarship Connection, I know we all face tough challenges that sometimes take our reach and our resources in opposite directions. But, I also know that being faced with a challenge is not the time to give up, it is the time to keep going. Our perseverance through challenging circumstances allows us to model the very resilience we seek to encourage and empower in those we serve.

As long as there is a world, there will likely be challenges. Challenges can inspire our most creative ideas and actionable epiphany's in great service. Leave the door open for these challenges to teach us more about ourselves and mature us beyond our beliefs. And as long as there is service to be rendered, nonprofits should choose to do whatever it takes to move beyond obstacles toward new strategies for meeting the need. The people we serve often cannot or will not be served by any other. Our determined ability to be there for them is what makes us great.

By all means, keep going!

Yours in Excellence,

Hillside History Connects to Rochester Family

Local author Sally Valentine, who has visited our Crestwood Children's Center Scottsville Campus to read to the youth, connects her family's history with Hillside's in an article appearing in the Sunday edition of the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.

To read the article,

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20111016/LIVING/110160304.

Sally's "walk down memory lane" is fitting as Hillside prepares for our 175th in 2012. Plannning for this important anniversary is in full swing and we would love to hear from you. If you have any memories of Hillside--as a donor, volunteer, family, staff member, or board member--we would love to hear from you! We are gathering memorabilia to fill the pages of our Hillside Family Scrapbook to be published on our web site and in various print publications to be released during our anniversary year. Send any photos, documents, thoughts, etc. by email to Jennifer Lesinski, Hillside Director of Marketing, at jlesinsk@hillside.com.

We hope you will share with us how Hillside was a part of your family's history too!

Bucket Poetry

A freight train in the wintery wind

a melody of chaos

in the dead end made of stone

Will this battle end

when time rewinds again

and again?

Will this go on

till we find our way

out of the dawn?

By Jarrett

Poetry Sucks

Poetry sucks.

Like hanging off of the edge of a cliff.

It scares me like a beautiful liar

of an epic fail

Finger nails on a chalk board,

an empty slot machine smashes the clouded glass

when your love is betrayed on the river bank

where you and your true love met.

By

Ticarria