My OC Community Internship is with Uniting Parents which is one of the program The Coalition of Heath Services offers. Uniting Parents is a parent case management program for families of children with chronic illnesses and/or disabilities. Uniting Parents provides families in the upper 32 counties of the Texas Panhandle with offices in Amarillo, Lubbock and Dumas Texas the program offers the resources they need to help their children. This program is designed to empower families and enhance their children’s quality of life by providing information, education, training, referrals, networking and support.
My background and passion lies in art and education. I create art outreach programs targeting the underserved youth in our area. Uniting parents was a perfect partnership for my internship, I believe art is beneficial and empowering giving kids a way to express themselves in non- verbal ways and giving them a feeling of success. I have created a summer art program for the youth of The Uniting Parents program and will also help with special events and services they offer their clients such as the Recycled Closet. This is a clothing give away where clients are invited to shop free of charge for clothes for themselves and their immediate family, the closet is filled with mostly new clothes donated by local retailers and the clothes that are not from retailers are excellent quality, gently used and clean. Uniting Parents has many Spanish speaking clients and being bilingual was a real advantage in my internship. The photos are of the bi-lingual art class flyer I created, A photo of me in class with the kids, and the Community Center where our art classes were held.
