Family Services of Blair County

As I prepare this article, we are one week away from Christmas 2004. Our Jewish friends have just finished celebrating Hanukah, our Hispanic friends celebrate Navidad at the same time as Christmas, and our African American friends are preparing to celebrate Quanza early in the New Year. December and January are two of the most important months for celebrating significant holidays in the major belief systems represented by our country's population.

As with other Christmas seasons, we have been busy responding to community requests for help at this season and, fortunately, to offers of help for those in need. You will read about Gunter's work to coordinate these activities in this issue.

Our Crime Victim Support Services Program offers some important tips about identity theft and introduces a new student intern.

The Mt. Aloysius student intern learning in our PFA Office in the courthouse will be staying for another semester.

The DD Program is very busy with the introduction of several new services - and you can read about our own "Golden Girls."

The first six months of our operating year have flown by and we look forward to the next six months with great anticipation. We will be moving to the new Teen Shelter in January and will formally launch The Teaching, Learning, and Connecting Program. It is a program designed to assist women to make a successful transition from the county prison to the community, including reconnecting with their children. Marlene Mock will lead this program. It will be located in office space on 11th. Avenue, Altoona, that we will sublease from Pyramid Healthcare. This location is very important as many of the women are faced with the challenges of addiction and will need treatment as part of the transition process. This service will be funded for 18 months through a grant obtained by Congressman Shuster. Before we know it, it will be time to begin working on the 2005-2006 budgets.

We have three task groups developing proposals to submit to The United Way of Blair County for consideration for funding, beginning 7/1/05. Each proposal addresses one of the impact areas identified by United Way as important for making Blair County a healthier community.

Family Services has been blessed with a very good 2004 and we look forward to the same in 2005. Have a Blessed Holiday Season and spend as much time as you can with family and friends.

Mahlon Fiscel
Executive Director