PA Family Newsletter

PFSA Newsletter – January 2019

The start of a new year usually brings a bit of reminiscing about the year just passed and looking forward to goals, wishes, plans, and special events in the year ahead. PFSA celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, and I realize I have spent the past 25 of those 40 years as the organization’s president and CEO.

Temporary guardianship for grandparents bill passes as Wolf officials meet with those raising grandchildren

By Christopher Huffaker – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

In response to the opioid epidemic, the Pennsylvania Senate unanimously passed a House bill Tuesday that grants temporary guardianship in 90-day increments, up to one year, to grandparents or other family members when the parents of children are unable to raise them.

State Rep. Eddie Day Pashinski, D-Luzerne, the bill’s lead sponsor, said in a news release, “I’m thankful that grandparents will now have legal rights when they step up to the plate and take over primary care for their grandchildren when the parents are not in the picture.”

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PFSA urges stronger focus on strengthening families, treating addiction and preventing child abuse

Parental opioid/heroin use poses a life-threatening risk to children.

Angela M. Liddle, MPA, President and CEO of Pennsylvania Family Support Alliance, the state leader in child protection, issued the following statement in response to the PA Department of Human Services’ 2017 Annual Child Protective Services Report. The report found that 40 children died due to child abuse in Pennsylvania in 2017 and 88 children nearly died of abuse.

New program supports parents struggling with addiction in Greene County

The Greene County Family Center is part of a statewide pilot program aimed at helping parents who are dealing with addiction to balance that struggle with their obligations to their families.

The center began offering the seven-week Families in Recovery class Jan. 8, with a new one to start Feb. 26. The curriculum, which was first used last fall at the Hamilton Health Center in Harrisburg, was developed by the Pennsylvania Family Support Alliance, a statewide nonprofit that works to prevent child abuse and neglect.

Addiction

Program helps families reconnect after addiction

Sonya Perez-Palmer’s grandchildren will push her buttons until they find the detonator.

There was a time when the grandmother of seven was quick to explode, but now she defuses the situation by pulling out her journal and writing down her thoughts.

It’s a coping mechanism she learned in the Farrell Family Center’s Families in Recovery Program — a seven-week program developed by PA Family Support Alliance aimed to help parents overcome addiction, and rebuild and strengthen relationships within the family.

Pilot program aimed at helping people in recovery become better parents

 By Chelsea Koerbler – Fox 43

Some family centers across the Commonwealth began training for a new pilot program Thursday. The program, offered by Pennsylvania Family Support Alliance, will help families in recovery.

“I want to give them a chance to become a family again.”

Substance use disorder can tear a family apart, and up until now there wasn’t a program offered statewide that could help recovering addicts learn how to pick up the broken pieces of their families.

High Companies Names Karen Biondolillo CFO

Karen Biondolillo has been named chief financial officer for the High companies, a diverse group of family-owned businesses and one of Central Pennsylvania’s largest employers.

Biondolillo takes responsibility for corporate finance, accounting, tax, and information technology departments, and joins the executive committee which provides strategic leadership to the High companies. She succeeds Mike Van Belle, who has been CFO since 2005 and recently announced his retirement.

Gov. Tom Wolf talks workforce development, Thaddeus Stevens College funding at High Steel visit

Gov. Tom Wolf, making an appearance Thursday in Lancaster County, defended his proposal to keep the county’s celebrated career and technical college flat-funded this year, saying his administration has provided $20 million for other recent capital projects at the school.

He said those additional funds, as well as Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology’s option to apply for specific workforce development grants, is why the basic subsidy line-item did not include an increase despite the college’s output of graduates who go on to high-paying technical work that’s in demand.