Rotary Hears About Ennis Center for Children
Rahsaan Burnley
The
Ennis Center for Children has been working with abused and/or neglected children for over 39 years.
Rahsaan Burnley to Rotary on Tuesday about the challenges faced by foster children. In particular, he addressed the problem of children who "age out" of the system and what happens to them.
Ennis serves clients in Southeast Michigan with
locations in Genesee, Livingston, Monroe, Oakland, St. Clair and Wayne County. They are a leading agency in finding adoptive families for children, including those with special needs. They also work with delinquent teens, helping them stay safe, stay in school and on a path toward a productive adulthood.
They have recently contracted with the State to provide services.
The service reaches over 3,500 Michigan children and families annually.
Burnley said that separating a child from their home and family can turn a life upside down. Sometimes a child is moved more than one time. Sometimes it's necessary. His job is to make this as good an experience as it can be. "It's a demanding job, but a rewarding one too", he said.
Addressing the "ageing out" situation, Burnley said there are options for young people who turn 18 to stay in the system and in foster care for a longer period. There are support mechanisms to help them with the transition.
The center's mission statement is "With the support of the community, we preserve families when possible and create new families when necessary". This mission charges the staff to
"guide children and families toward a future better than their past".
For more information visit
enniscenter.org.
CLUB NEWS and ANNOUNCEMENTS
The
Tall Ship Celebration is coming to down in mid-July. As always, Rotarians will fill a number of volunteer jobs. See
Nancy Greve for details and to volunteer.
Remember to sell your
Golf Outing Raffle Tickets.
The prize will again be an I-pad computer with AirPods.
See
Cindy Chadwick for details.
The district has requested assistance with housing and transportation for a
Rotary Global Scholar from Pakistan who will be in the area June 10 to 13. If you can assist, please tell Harvey.
The district also asked for help recruiting
OUT-bound foreign exchange students. We have had a regular stream of inbounds, but it's been a while since anyone went abroad from our area. Informational meetings are planned in the next weeks.
A number of people commented on how well the
Mitten State Music Revival came off! Jeff Yantz will present a wrap-up soon.
In the day's "
Rotary Foundation Minute"
C.J. Miller talked about what Rotary means to him. Unlike other organizations that primarily support networking, Rotary has an outreach that touches those in need world wide through its Foundation and causes.
The club will meet off-site on these dates:
June 4 - The Depot
June 18 - Marriott Uptown
July 30 - Marriott Uptown
COUNTING DOWN
At the board's direction, these Breezes,
the club web site,
and the member database
will be dropped as of July 1, 2019.
Replacing these systems,
used for the last fifteen years,
will be the Club Runner program.
If there are features of the current system that you like or rely on,
be sure to ask board members or incoming administration if there will be
a replacement for that feature.
---- DATES TO REMEMBER ----
June 24, 2019: Golf Outing - 9:00 am Maple Leaf Golf Course
Upcoming Programs
(See the official schedule at
RotaryBayCity.org )
May 28, 2019: Diane Fong and Carolyn Wierda will update the club on the
latest information from the
Bay Area Community Foundation.
June 4, 2019: SVSU update by Don Bachand
OFF SITE MEETING June 4 - Depot
June 11, 2019: Chuck Cusick will give us an update on
Polio, its effective and new cases.
June 18, 2019: ODRAM Bike Run presented by Cindy Aley-Holzgen
OFF SITE MEETING June 4 - Marriott
June 25, 2019: Rev. Phil Johnson, chaplain at the Bay County Jai,
will talk about the spiritual needs of people incarcerated in the Bay County Jail and the
Forgotten Man Ministries.
Rotary is an intimate affiliation of carefully selected business and professional people,
having as its objective the promotion of high ethical standards in private, commercial
and civic life, and dedicated to the ideal that the basis of all worthy endeavor is unselfish service.
Current and past
DISTRICT DISPATCH newsletters are available on the District site shown in the LINKS section below.
Rotary Bay City on Facebook!
Click on the Blue Facebook to visit us there.
Remember! Check attendance sheets at the front desk.
LINKS
Stephen Kent
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Steve Kent and his family have lived in Bay City for 40 years. He is VP of Technical Services at MMCC which produces MyBayCity.Com. Kent is active in many Bay City civic organizations.
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