Mississippi Artist Donates Book Proceeds to MCHS

Mississippi artist, Ann Biedenharn Jones, will be donating a portion of the proceeds from her new book “Ann Biedenharn Jones, Life and Art” to Mississippi Children’s Home Services. The 128 page, soft cover book will measure 11 X 11 inches and will include 96 full color reproductions as well as 22 photos.

 “Children, animals, character studies, and the still life have evolved as favorite subjects of Ann Biedenharn Jones in her oil painting career… her paintings are bold, colorful, very personal, and softly complementary in style,” said Kenneth M. Quinn.

Through August 20, 2010, Ann’s book can be pre-ordered at the discounted rate $24.95 (regular price $29.95). Add $6.00 shipping and handling for up to 3 books, plus an additional $3.00 shipping per book for 4 or more. To order, send check or money order to: Blue Lake Press, P.O. Box 820468, Vicksburg, MS 39182. To order by credit card, call 601-638-4052. The books will ship in October 2010

 

Mississippi Children’s Home Services Elects New Members to 2010 -2011 Board of Directors

JACKSON, MS, June 11, 2010– Mississippi Children’s Home Services (MCHS) elected new members to serve on the 2010 – 2011 Mississippi Children’s Home Services Board of Directors at the agency’s annual meeting on May 26th.

New board members serving a three-year term include: Larry J Accardi, retired Executive Vice President Sysco Corporation, consultant and private investor; Othor Cain, Managing Editor The Mississippi Link Newspaper/WRBJ Radio Host; Dr. Paul Cotten, Professor of Music and Psychology at William Carey University; La’Verne Edney, General Counsel at Mississippi Volunteer Lawyers Project and Partner at the Brunini Law Firm; Gwendolyn Winters, Program Administrator with Mississippi State Department of Health. Additionally, serving on the Board of Directors for 2010 will be Jennifer Bracken, 2010-2011 MCHS Auxiliary President, and representatives from the South Mississippi Children’s Center and the Warren County Children’s Shelter.

2010 – 2011 Officers include: Carol Biedenharn, President; Richard Bradley III, Vice President; Barney Daly, Secretary; Lauren Benner, Asst. Secretary; Sherribeth Farmer, Treasurer; Jeffrey Webster, Asst. Treasurer.

Mississippi Children’s Home Services Board of Directors oversees and conducts business matters on behalf of the statewide non-profit agency. Board Members from all over the state represent Mississippi Children’s Home Services in issues related to the agency that serves abused and neglected Mississippi children, youth and families in need.

“I look forward to working closely with the new Board members, and we are very fortunate to have such distinguished advocates for Mississippi children, youth, and families on our team,” said MCHS Chief Executive Officer Chris Cherney. “Our new members are community leaders, seasoned professionals, and volunteers.”

New MCHS Board Member, Mr. Larry Accardi stated, “My wife, Kathy, and I have been impressed with MCHS from our first visit to their Jackson campus, we have this window of opportunity to give children a chance and we must make every effort to accomplish this goal. I am excited about being a Board Member where I can expand my investment in the future of at-risk Mississippi children.”

Mississippi Children’s Home Services Holds 2009 Annual Meeting

JACKSON, MS, June 22, 2010 – Mississippi Children’s Home Services (MCHS) presented three distinguished awards at the agency’s annual meeting themed “Building Bright Futures” which was held at the Jackson Country Club. The Distinguished Community Support Award was presented to The Farese Group, the Friend of Children Award was presented to Dr. Ronald E. Persing, and the Public Partner Award was presented to Ed LeGrand, Mississippi Department of Mental Health. Rankin County Court Judge Thomas Broome was the keynote speaker to a crowd of 139 members of the Board of Directors, staff, and supporters.

“The Annual Meeting is a time to reflect back on the accomplishments of the past year, and for our constituents, friends, government liaisons, Board of Directors, volunteers and others to see the strides this agency has made thanks to their endless support and vital partnerships,” said MCHS CEO, Chris Cherney.

Justice Broome’s Key Note address described the impact of child abuse and how MCHS is helping Mississippi’s children. “In the US we have a report of child abuse once every 5 seconds… These numbers that we talk about are not just numbers they are faces behind numbers…” said Justice Broome. “Children are 59% more likely to be arrested as a juvenile if they have been abused. They are 29% more likely to be arrested as an adult and 30% of them are likely to commit a violent crime… [but] what gives me the greatest hope is that there is a group of individuals like yourselves [MCHS] and others that are committed to making changes for the better so we can prison-proof our children [but] we don’t only want to prison proof them… we want the children to excel and to do better than ourselves.”

The 2009 Distinguished Community Support Award was presented to The Farese Group, one of the fastest growing companies in Mississippi, which specializes in helping employees in the telecommunications and utilities industries plan for retirement. The Farese Group has pledged a percentage of their annual revenue to MCHS to support children, youth, and families in need and to encourage other businesses to give back to the community in a similar fashion.

Dr. Ronald E. Persing, deceased, was awarded the 2009 Friend of Children Award. Dr. Persing served as the MCHS CARES Center’s Pediatrician from 2000 until his death on March 13, 2010. Dr. J Clinton Smith, from the University Medical Center’s Pediatric Department, accepted the award on behalf of the Persing Family.

The 2009 Public Partner Award was presented to Ed LeGrand, Executive Director of the Mississippi Department of Mental Health. Mississippi Children’s Home Services has worked in partnership with Ed and the Mississippi Department of Mental Health since 1983 to build bright futures for Mississippi’s children. Sandra Parks, Director of the Mental Health’s Division of Child and Youth Services, accepted the award in Mr. LeGrand’s absence.

Photo 1 Caption: The MCHS 2009 Distinguished Community Support Award winner: The Farese Group. (left to right) Denise Stevenson, Nicholas Brown, Erin McCain, Paxton Farese, Christie Farese, J.D. Hamblen, Jeff Turnipseed, and Leigh Jernigan.

Photo 2 Caption: MCHS Chief Executive Officer, Chris Cherney, with Sandra Parks, Director of the Mental Health’s Division of Child and Youth Services, accepting the 2009 Public Partner Award on behalf of Ed LeGrand, Executive Director of the Mississippi Department of Mental Health.

 

Photo 3 Caption: Dr. J Clinton Smith, from the University Medical Center’s Pediatric Department, accepted the 2009 Friend of Children award on behalf of the late Dr. Ronald E. Persing.

Mississippi Children’s Home Services Continues Tours of Jackson Campuses

 Jackson, MS, June 1, 2010 – Mississippi Children’s Home Services (MCHS) continues to offer free tours of the agency’s Jackson campuses including the new 21-acre Jean Austin Bagley Campus, which opened in November.

Recently, Jeff Peoples of Peoples Construction Company, his wife, Melinda Peoples, and Will Longwitz, attended a tour given by MCHS Board Member Jon-David Johnson with Larry Smith-Vaniz Realty, and MCHS Director of Development Ken Allen. Mr. Longwitz, a Madison County Attorney, is in the running for Madison County Court judge.  Madison County Court judges rule over a variety of cases including Youth Court and Juvenile Drug Court both of which are related to the services provided by Mississippi Children’s Home Services (MCHS).

MCHS has Mississippi’s only not-for-profit Psychiatric Residential Treatment Facility (PRTF) and is the only Mississippi-based agency providing services for emotionally troubled children through a unique continuum of care. The agency relies on financial donations from individuals, organizations, foundations and government funding to help carry out the agency’s mission to provide help for abused and neglected children.

The one-hour MCHS tour allows guests to learn how MCHS’s campus-based, community-based, and educational programs serve children and youth. The tour includes the new Jean Austin Bagley Campus’s three ten-bed cottages housing children in the CARES PRTF Center. Also on the Bagley campus, the W. L. Albritton Arts and Education Center serves as an elementary school for children 6-12 years who participate in the campus based programs as well children from the community who are unable to succeed in their local schools. 

Tours are scheduled every other Friday from 10 to 11 a.m. For more information or to schedule a tour, please call Gloria McGowan at 601-709-1250 or email Gloria.McGowan@mchscares.org

Melinda and Jeff Peoples, Ken Allen (MCHS Director of Development), Will Longwitz, and Jon-David Johnson (MCHS Board Member) in the MCHS Cradle room where adoptive parents are united with their new babies and children.

 

MCHS CARES Middle School Girls Go Green

Jackson, MS, May 27, 2010 – Middle school girls in the care of Mississippi Children’s Home Services’ CARES Center, a Psychiatric Residential Treatment Facility for children with emotional and behavioral disturbances, planted a garden on MCHS’s new Bagley campus in Jackson. Mary Washington, CARES School Science teacher, organized the project. “For Earth Day, our girls started the garden by planting honeydew melons, cantaloupes, and strawberries to teach teamwork and to provide healthy snacks,” said Mrs. Washington. “We hope that the project will teach the girls that hard work pays off as they watch the plants grow.”

“This is a great project,” commented one eager seventh grade girl. “I learned about working with a team and I learned how to plant different fruits. I am excited about doing a garden when I go back to my family so we don’t have to waste money and gas to go to the store.”

“I really enjoyed this project too,” added a sixth grader. “We were able to plant and take care of the garden because of good behavior and I loved working with Mrs. Washington. She always shows character and teaches us to do the same and to work together.”

The CARES School boys and girls are also painting bird houses to go along the fence behind their garden which they hope will keep the birds out of their garden.

In addition to the garden, the students are learning to reduce, reuse, and recycle with a new recycling bin for aluminum cans near their cafeteria. The students and teachers are doing their part to keep cans in the bins and out of the trash. One student even encourages her family to bring their cans to the school to contribute to the recycling efforts when they visit.

The students participating in the projects are part of MCHS CARES, Mississippi’s only non-profit Psychiatric Residential Treatment Facility (PRTF), which serves children and youth with severe emotional and behavioral disturbances often due to abuse and neglect.

“Pioneering child psychologist Nicholas Hobbs noted that ‘communities are important but the uses and benefits of community must be experienced to be learned,’ and we should ‘ensure that children are able to utilize the community to learn, grow, and be successful in life,’” said Arthur Ring, MCHS Clinical Director – Campus Based Services. “For the children in our care, activities like recycling or working in the garden or helping out at Stewpot or Mt. Leopard show them how they are connected with the bigger community not only while they are here at MCHS but also in the external environment including how a child experiences family.”

Mrs. Mary Washington and MCHS CARES girls discuss their newly planted garden.

One of the CARES middle school girls does her part to recycle.

Mississippi Children in Need of Foster Homes

Jackson, MS, May 13, 2010 - President Barak Obama recently issued the proclamation recognizing May as National Foster Care Month. According to Mr. Obama, "nearly a half-million children and youth are in foster care in America, all entering the system through no fault of their own." The month serves to "recognize the promise of children and youth in foster care, as well as former foster youth," added Mr. Obama.

"There are hundreds of Mississippi children and youth who could benefit from a foster home," said Chris Cherney, CEO of Mississippi Children's Home Services. "Children and youth deserve caring loving homes. Foster families are a wonderful alternative for many children with nowhere else to turn. These children need to know that they are loved and that people care about them and their futures."

"Therapeutic foster care and adoption remain at the core our agency," said Beth Frizsell, MCHS Division Director of Permanency. "Many of the youth in our programs have suffered emotional or physical abuse or neglect and need loving homes while they work on treatment goals in preparation for permanent placement. Our therapeutic foster care program utilizes highly trained professional staff and foster families who have demonstrated specific competencies in responding to and working with the behaviors associated with seriously emotionally disturbed youth."

To find out more about entering the therapeutic foster care program to help a child in need of a supportive home environment, please call (601) 352-7784.

MCHS Radio Spot aired April 20th, 2010

Radio Interview with Auxiliary Member, Pamela Nail, on Hallelujah 95.5 on April 20, 2010. The interview discusses the sold out Jackson Wine Tasting & Silent Auction and our MCHS Ladies Auxiliary