Are you interested in event planning? We're gathering volunteers for our event planning committee for the Get Inspired! Breakfast on May 20. Please email us at development@swyfs.org if you are interested in helping - or attending!

Check out our brand new video! http://youtu.be/b_ZtwG7R3GI

Southwest Youth and Family Services

http://www.SWYFS.org: Southwest Youth and Family Services (SWYFS) is a human services nonprofit organization whose mission is to create communities in southwest Sea...

Thank you to KURIOS by Cirque du Soleil - for the donation of 30 tickets to the show on Feb. 3 at Marymoor Park! This is an experience that many of our families and students would not be exposed to without your generous donation.

Check out Woodridge Park students' first day participating in an SOS Outreach program that will teach them how to ski and snowboard over a 5 week period! Along with skiing and snowboarding each week students focus on a core value like courage. Everyone did a great job continuing after many falls and encouraging each other! We are looking forward to learning more this week!

Today, 20 students are taking their end of course test for math in our Education Center. Wish them luck!

Southwest Youth And Family Services added 4 photos.

Always a nice reminder that even champions start small! You never know who might be the next star in the NFL, classroom, city council, fire department, or really wherever a child wants to apply their talents in life. With some support and nurturing kids can overcome great odds to become someone truly remarkable someday!

(Jermaine Kearse, Russell Wilson, Richard Sherman, Marshawn Lynch)
#GoHawks #GONEWFUTURES

To use some words from a great leader, "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." Martin Luther King Jr. Be part of something that matters. Get involved with Southwest Youth & Family Services. http://www.swyfs.org/get-involved/volunteer/

Volunteer - SWYFS

http://www.swyfs.org

Southwest Youth and Family Services needs YOU! Many of our programs would cease to exist without people volunteering their time and energy to make them happen. We have fun and rewarding volunteering opportunities on both a long-term and short-term basis … Continued

Save the Date: Southwest Youth and Family Services Get Inspired! Breakfast is on May 20 at the Seattle Sheraton. http://swyfsbreakfast.eventbrite.com

Southwest Youth & Family Services Get Inspired! Breakfast

http://www.eventbrite.com

Join us for this fundraising breakfast to learn more about our enriching and vital programs for youth and families served through our New Futures sites in White Center, Burien and SeaTac. For more information on Southwest Youth and Families or the New Futures programs - please visit our website at w…

Congratulations to Kathy Arana, one of West Seattle Rotary’s Student of the Month winners. We’re so proud of your accomplishments! Keep up the great work.

PenguinPalooza continues at Woodridge Park. Last week students took a trip to the Woodland Park Zoo where they got up close with Humbolt Penguins. Did you know the exhibit uses geothermal heating and cooling to maintain the Humbolt's ideal water temperature of 50-60*F?!

Are you interested in event planning? We're gathering volunteers for our event planning committee for the Get Inspired! Breakfast on May 20. Please email us at development@swyfs.org if you are interested in helping - or attending!

This month New Futures ' students at Woodridge Park are learning all about penguins! Yesterday they tested their waddling skills in a relay race. The competition was fierce, but also full of laughter and fun!

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Southwest Youth And Family Services commented on their own post.

Hope everyone had a happy holidays full of rest, family and good feelings! Before the break some of our kid's holidays were made a little bit brighter by this lovely event in Covington, put on by the police department. Thanks to everyone involved and to all the generous donations to this event. We all had a blast!

City of Covington, WA (Official)

Covington Police participated in the annual Shop With a Cop event at the Covington WalMart last Saturday. Over 450 kids were able to shop for Christmas gifts with an officer's assistance and a $50 budget. Our police love taking part in this event every year.

As we reflect on the year of 2014 and look forward to all that we can accomplish for 2015, please consider making a (tax deductible) donation to support our community and the programs that Southwest Youth and Family Services provides allowing our friends and neighbors to thrive. http://www.swyfs.org/get-involved/donate/

Donate - SWYFS

http://www.swyfs.org

100% of your donation, no matter the amount, will make a huge impact on all those that come through our doors. Through community donations and involvement, Southwest Youth and Family Services can make an even greater difference in the lives of those … Continued

Thank you to our community partners and friends, including Nucor Steel Seattle, Zumiez, Two Degrees, and so many other companies and local families - we were able to provide gifts and grocery assistance to 32 families in need this year and holiday season! That is what community is all about!

Southwest Youth And Family Services added 5 photos.

Check out a day in the life of the After School Programs at New Futures Woodridge Park!

We are excited to announce 2014's last Volunteer of the Month - Scott Bretl!

We know Scott as the spouse of one of our New Futures program staff members, but he wears another hat as a New Futures volunteer. When the Windsor Heights community needs him, Scott is there.
Earlier this year, he was a huge help with a family that was experiencing a domestic incident. He went to the home, served restraining order paperwork, and helped get the children back to the mother. He is also a very gifted math teacher, and the youth love it when he can come in and help out with math. He spent many hours this semester helping a number of our middle and high school students with math. He's been especially important to one student who started school late and had almost a month of math work to make up.
Thank you Scott for going above and beyond the call of duty!

Last minute tree shopping? Check out West Seattle Nursery. A donation will be made to Southwest Youth and Family Services when you get your tree delivered! Thank you West Seattle Nursery for your support!

On November 25th, through the "Warm the Homeless" event, a group of youth from our Southwest Network; Seattle Youth Violence Prevention Initiative packaged together gloves, scarves and beanies and distributed them out to the homeless downtown. They also set up a canopy so the homeless can help themselves to pastries and coffee/hot chocolate donated by community bakeries.

This week in our Education Center a visiting scholar facilitated a workshop discussing the poetry of Xu Lizhi a 24-year-old former worker at a Foxconn factory in China. Xu’s poems have recently been translated into English and have been discussed in various publications such as the Wall St. Journal and the Washington Post. They speak to the alienation and isolation of factory life in South China. SWYFS students made connections to struggles that youth here face, from homelessness to incarceration.

http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2014/11/07/after-suicide-foxconn-workers-poems-strike-a-chord/

After Suicide, Foxconn Worker’s Poems Strike a Chord

blogs.wsj.com

Poems from a young worker at Foxconn Technology Co. who committed suicide have opened a rare window into the mundane and grueling work on China’s factory floors.

This past Tuesday, four Windsor Heights youth completed a fun service project as first and second year SOS Outreach University students. The SOS Outreach program grants our youth the opportunity to learn snowboarding and life skills through the excellent program structure and mentorship of some amazing volunteers. Our four youth are participating in the program for either the second or third consecutive year. For the winter of 2015, we are grateful to be able to bring an additional eight youth to learn how to ride for the first time. Our other New Futures sites will be joining us as well this year. Thank you, SOS Outreach!

Congratulations to our Teen Parent Program participants, who have seen so much success that 3 students are taking their GED Test TODAY! Join us as we wish them luck!

Are you ordering gifts on amazon.com this year? Use this link to direct a percentage of your purchases go back to Southwest Youth and Family Services. Shop Amazon at http://smile.amazon.com/ref=smi_ge_sr_btnr1_setch?_encoding=UTF8&x=0&y=0&pldnNew=1

Amazon.com: Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more

http://www.amazon.com

Online shopping from the earth's biggest selection of books, magazines, music, DVDs, videos, electronics, computers, software, apparel & accessories, shoes, jewelry, tools & hardware, housewares, furniture, sporting goods, beauty & personal care, broadband & dsl, gourmet food & just about anything e…

Southwest Youth And Family Services shared New Futures - a Branch of Southwest Youth & Family Services's photo.

#POWERofPCHP

Timeline Photos

In a recent ELL class at Woodridge Park, parents and their children did activities together to help the parents practice their language skills. One of the adult students was encouraged to read Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do You See? to the group. After class, the ELL teacher said that the student did a really great job and that she was pleasantly surprised with the student's reading fluency. Sometimes timing is everything: just a week before, a PCHP Home Visitor had brought the family their very own copy of Brown Bear to read together. The practice had already paid off!
Evidence shows that PCHP provides children with the skills and knowledge they need to succeed in school and life. A major part of that success is parents feeling empowered as their children's first and most important teacher! #PowerofPCHP

By: New Futures - a Branch of Southwest Youth & Family Services