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Olive Crest on CBS News


Monday May 3, 2010

Reading Time: 6 minutes
OLIVE CREST’S “SAFE FAMILIES FOR CHILDREN” PROGRAM TO BE FEATURED ON CBS NEWS
When: Tuesday May 4th, 2010 at 6:30 p.m.
Where: CBS Evening News with Katie Couric

The life-changing work of Olive Crest will be featured on National television on Tuesday, May 4, at 6:30 p.m., as CBS Evening News with Katie Couric reports on the impact of our work through our
Safe Families for Children program in Southern California.

The news report will showcase lives that have been touched these last few months by Olive Crest and its Safe Families program. And while we are not sure whether the reporters will mention Olive Crest’s name in their newscast, please know that they are reporting on their work. Chief Programs Officer, Dr. Karen Bergstrom, spent three days working with CBS to arrange the interviews and introduce the reporters to the Olive Crest team. Management guru Peter Drucker has said, “The product of a non-profit is a changed life.” You will see first hand the lives Olive Crest is changing in this eye-opening report.

Safe Families is a new church-based movement designed to help families and children facing temporary crises and needing temporary care. The non-government program mobilizes local churches and their members to help reduce child abuse and returns the church to the forefront of caring for local children and families in need. Volunteer families (trained by Olive Crest) open their homes to at-risk children (newborn through 18 years old) whose parents are experiencing a short-term emergency such as hospitalization or a long-term crisis such as drug abuse. Thanks to Safe Families, struggling parents do not have to lose their children to the child welfare system, and the children remain safe, loved and well cared for during a difficult time.

Safe Families is a new church-based movement designed to help families and children facing temporary crises and needing temporary care. The non-government program mobilizes local churches and their members to help reduce child abuse and returns the church to the forefront of caring for local children and families in need. Volunteer families (trained by Olive Crest) open their homes to at-risk children (newborn through 18 years old) whose parents are experiencing a short-term emergency such as hospitalization or a long-term crisis such as drug abuse. Thanks to Safe Families, struggling parents do not have to lose their children to the child welfare system, and the children remain safe, loved and well cared for during a difficult time.

Mariners Church – Irvine, Calvary Chapel – Santa Ana, Cornerstone Bible – Garden Grove, Terra Nova – Lake Forest, Long Beach Fellowship, Calvary Church Capistrano Beach, Yorba Linda Friends Church, and Shoreline Church – San Clemente are among the Southern California churches whose members are actively participating in our Safe Families program. Olive Crest has been able to place 32 children and have attracted more than 200 people who have expressed a willingness help. Olive Crest coordinates the program in Southern California, which continues to expand throughout the regions we serve, providing the training for the volunteer families and monitoring the placements on an ongoing basis.

To learn more, tune into CBS News on Tuesday, May 4.

For the Children,

Reading Time: 7 minutes
blind ambition nixon book

A few months back a friend of mine suggested that I might write a book titled “51 Cards!” When I questioned her on this title, she said: “51 Cards” is the title Kevin (her husband) proposed for your yet to be published autobiography. It alludes to your lamentation that the Baby Boomer generation is “not playing with a full deck” due to the emotional scars inflicted by such events as the Vietnam war, the assassinations of MLK, JFK and RFK, etc.” I think the title is perfect and I have often said that people of my generation lived through many life changing events in our formative years. This is not an excuse, but an explanation of what we are about. And so today, I am remembering August 8, 1974, Richard M. Nixon. It was on this day, 35 years ago, that the President of the United States (POTUS) Richard M. Nixon announced his resignation as a result of the Watergate Scandal.

On June 15, 1974, I received my BA degree from California State University, Los Angeles. What I recall most about my last year in college were the Senate Watergate hearings. These hearings ran from May 17, 1973 through August 7, 1973. The hearings were televised, but remember I was working and going to college full time, so being able to watch the televised hearings was a luxury. The university was nice enough to set up televisions in the library so that the actual social network of students could stop by the library in between classes to watch the hearings. Remember now, this is when we still only had three networks…NBC, ABC, and CBS. Oh, and yes we did have our newspapers. According to Wikipedia “Each network maintained coverage of the hearings every third day, starting with ABC on May 17 and ending with NBC on August 7. An estimated 85% of Americans with television sets tuned in to at least one portion of the hearings.” The Senate issued its seven volume report on June 27, 1974.

Within a few weeks of my graduation I went to work for a small financial corporation. Every evening I would go back to my little apartment and turn on the news. But on August 8, 1974, I hurried home as Richard Nixon was going to address the nation at 6:00PM PST. We had learned this from listening to radio news that afternoon. That evening I watched intently as Richard M. Nixon announced his resignation. That was 35 years ago today and I invite you to listen to part of this speech here or visit the Miller Center to hear the whole speech.

The next day I went to work, but I brought my television with me. At 9:00AM PST, August 9, 1974, all of the employees gathered around this little 12 inch Zenith black and white television to watch Gerald Ford become our 38th president. It didn’t matter which political side of the aisle you were on, this was, hopefully, a once in a lifetime event. If you want to learn more about this time in our history, I invite you to read “All the President’s Men” by Woodward and Bernstein and “Blind Ambition” by John Dean.

It is funny, last evening I happened to catch Lewis Black on HBO. It wasn’t a new bit, but I listened again to him as he described how “our” young lives were ruled by fear during the cold war. We practiced for air raid drills, nuclear bombs, hid under our wooden desks, and watched some of our parents waste their hard earned money building bomb shelters. “51 Cards”, indeed!

“There are eight million stories in the Naked City. This has been one of them.”

Reading Time: < 1 minute

10 Years Ago Today, The Columbine High School Massacre, Where were you?

I was having a discussion this morning regarding the theory that,

“It takes a beach to raise a child” 10 years after Columbine ask yourself, if my child is up to no good, Would I know? Who would tell me if I did not notice? and a more troubling thought,

“Antidepressant medicines increase suicidal thoughts and actions in some children, teenagers, and young adults.”

On this 10th anniversary of Columbine ask yourself “Is My Child At Risk?”

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Today is Saturday, April 4, 2009. This is one of those historical days that stays in your mind. You wake up and think to yourself what is special about this date. And then you remember, April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated.

In 1968 we didn’t have cell phones, iPhones, the Internet, personal computers. We depended on learning about the news by radio and for the most part black and white television sets, and the newspaper. Your social networks were not virtual like Facebook, MySpace, YouTube; on the contrary your social networks were your friends, college classmates, co-workers, family members.

In 1968 I was a freshman at the University of San Francisco. Spring break was about to begin and I was not going home to San Diego. Here is a clip of the CBS Evening News, April 4, 1968.

As the years have passed, I remember April 4th for many reasons. “There are eight million stories in the Naked City. This has been one of them.”