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A community-based non-profit serving & celebrating families since 1910.
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| On being thankful for the mud |
Wingra Creek runs along the back side of FSM's headquarters on Olin Avenue, connecting Lake Winga and Lake Monona. It doesn't look like much to most
folks, and thousands driving along John Nolan, Olin, Park and Fish Hatchery daily pass over it without notice. But at this moment in FSM's history, the little creek has taken on a large metaphorical meaning for me.
The place where the water touches the land is called the riparian zone and it's one of Earth's most important ecosystems. The zone acts as a natural filter, cleaning water as it moves into the watershed, and protecting soil from erosion. The zone actually creates new soil and provides dynamic wildlife habitats. It takes on different forms depending on the river and its location, but in each form the zone is the sine qua non of life.
Wingra Creek reminds me often of the creek I played in as a young boy. Older boys wore a path along its banks as they fished its holes, but I was drawn off the path and down to the water's edge. The memories are so vivid, I can almost feel how the ground first turned spongy, then squishy. Then, in another step or two, I was ankle-deep in muddy water, surrounded by the fragrance of the thick clumps of Blue Flag.
That memory now fuels the metaphor. In the riparian zone, you're neither on safe, familiar ground nor swept up in the excitement of a clear current. Instead, you're in the muck between two certainties, with uncertain footing and uncertain direction - but you're also where the vital mix of elements both cleanses and provides a birthplace for new life. So it is with FSM right now.
FSM is in its riparian zone, between the soothing security of solid ground and the thrill of being swept up in the fast-moving currents of new ideas and new directions. With new leadership and changes forced on two of our longest-standing programs, we're between where we were and where we're going. We're exploring new directions in fund-development, marketing, outreach, networking and diversity. We're exploring a new focus for old programs. We're launching new programs in 2016, one to aid in the prevention of child abuse and one with a cutting-edge focus on infant trauma. We're moving forward toward new collaborations with other non-profits providing vital services to our community. We're taking stock of our strengths and weaknesses, performing market analyses, and challenging each other to flex our creativity muscles. We're even looking for a new name and logo.
Making our way through the muddy mix of possibilities is hard, slow going, and even mental health therapists can feel anxiety during the ordeal of change, but this is the sine quo non of life for FSM. And, really, there is something more -- something life-affirming, something animating, something even enriching about slogging through the vibrant mud. Let's call it hope.
Wingra's banks are covered in snow today, and a thin sheet of ice is forming along its edges, but as I watch it flow by my office window, I can't help but feel lifted by the metaphor it has become. Between what is and what will be, there is the vitality of what might be, the riparian zone, and it's one more in a long list of reasons, this week, to bow my head in thanksgiving.
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FSM seeks bilingual service coordinator
Work to make a difference! FSM's Bridges for Families Birth to Three Program is seeking a bilingual (Spanish/English) service coordinator. The Early Intervention Service Coordinator actively participates in relationship-based early intervention through the use of evidence-based natural learning practices to enhance the development of infants and toddlers with developmental delays and disabilities, and to enhance the capacity of families and other care providers to provide ongoing learning opportunities for these children throughout daily activities and routines. Please visit our careers page at
www.fsmad.org for more information and to find an application.
If this position isn't a good fit for you, please share it among people and in places where it may find likely prospects. Thanks!
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Year-end fund-raising letter on its way
FSM is closing out the year with a direct-mail and email pitch to its supporters, so keep an eye on both your snail-mail postbox and your email inbox. If you would, please send us any updates you need to your contact information, share the letter with anyone (and everyone!) you think might support FSM's important work, and give some consideration to making a year-end donation, if you're able.
You can also make an
immediate or
on-going donation to FSM through our donation page.
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New programs coming in 2016
FSM is launching two new programs in 2016, one aimed at preventing child abuse and the other a cutting-edge infant trauma program.
The Strong Families Initiative Program (SFI) provides flexible, in-home, strength-based support, skill building, and treatment services to parents and families in Dane County. The program focuses on promoting healthy physical and emotional development by providing information on appropriate developmental expectations and positive parenting skills. The goal is to aid in the prevention of child abuse by promoting the parent's ability to parent in a safe and effective manner.
The Trauma- Informed Child Parent Psychotherapy program treats the parent-child dyad that has suffered trauma. Research has shown that children who are witnesses to violence have the same brain and emotional response as those who are victims of violence. These children will have difficulty trusting others, attaching emotionally to others and self-regulating. They also may act out or withdraw, and their development will be effected. To help these children, the parents must also be treated for their trauma, must learn how the trauma affects their child, and must learn ways to support their child.
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Are you creative? Check out the FSM name and logo contest
FSM needs a new name and logo, and we're inviting creative people from around the world to help. If you submit the name that is selected, you will win $1,000. If you submit the logo that is selected, you will win $1,000.
Our current name confuses people, often leading them to mistake us for a government agency, a family planning clinic, etc. So, we're in search of a name that better conveys our values and our work.
Family Service Madison is a 105-year-old non-profit agency offering a wide range of services to build safer, strong families and communities. In broad terms, we offer: mental health therapy, with an emphasis on anti-aggression; employee assistance therapy and training for a better work life; evaluation and therapy for children birth to 3 years old with a delay or disability; management, development and financial services to other non-profits; and prevention programs in alcohol and other drug abuse. Get a better feel for who we are and what we do by reading through our website at
www.fsmad.org, learning more about our programs and partners, and perusing our publications.
You submit one or more suggestions for our new name, along with your name, address and phone number. We'll log it when it arrives (so if someone else submits the same name later, we know you were first). Our senior staff will act as a jury, narrowing down the submissions to the top three (members of the staff entering the contest will be excluded from the jury). Those top three will be submitted to the board of directors for a final selection. If the board picks your suggestion, you win!
The same process works for the logo portion of the contest.
To be considered, we need your entry by 5 PM CST on Friday, January 8, 2016. Winners will be notified by February 5, 2016. Of course, we reserve the right to pick no winner at all.
To enter, y
ou can fax to 608-252-1333 o
r email to info@fsmad.org or
mail to: Family Service Madison, 128 E. Olin Ave., Madison, WI 53713
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| Family Service Madison | 608-252-1320 | info@fsmad.org | www.fsmad.org
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