WORKING TO HELP THE RESIDENTS
We are always doing our best to support the Village Residents and Staff. We have donated tennis shoes to residents who needed them, bags for Mandy Place residents so they have something to transport their belongings in when they go home. We have paid for driver’s training for residents who are going home to help them fit back into the community. The Foundation is presently funding the projects listed below:
Teacher’s Pet – Dogs and Kids Learning Together
Teacher’s Pet strives to teach at-risk youth in the metro Detroit area empathy, hope, and perseverance. Each of these invaluable character traits empowers them to lead highly influential and successful lives. The intervention program pairs youth with homeless shelter dogs for multi-week workshops led by the program’s trained professionals. Often for the first time, both youth and dogs experience compassionate love.
Youth meet two times a week for two hours during the 10 week program. For 1 hour, youth trainers teach dogs life skills and basic obedience to make them more adoptable using positive reinforcement training methods. While the other hour is dedicated to classroom time learning about body language, force-free training, dogfighting, puppy mills, shelters, and more. For more information regarding the Teacher’s Pet Program click on the link below.
Lost Voices – Saving Lives One Song at a Time
Lost Voices is an organization founded to bring life-changing creative programs to kids who are recovering from severe emotional trauma due to factors like abuse, neglect, violence, addiction, and human trafficking. Lost Voices help these young people take a look into their hearts and write original roots music, then share their feelings by performing in front of their peers in a professional concert situation.
Every group worked with has experienced tremendous personal growth and healing, not just among the direct program participants, but also among the other at-risk kids who see their peers exploring some of their most difficult thoughts and feelings on stage. For more information regarding the Lost Voices Program click on the link below.
Sensory Room
Sensory rooms help create a safe space that provide opportunities for calming or alerting the nervous system and help increase skill acquisition for emotional regulation. By providing a sense of calm and comfort, sensory rooms help children learn to self-regulate their behaviors. Sensory rooms are most effective when they address all of a person’s sensory needs – sight, sound, touch, smell and taste. Movement is also an important factor in sensory rooms. Fortunately, many sensory room items can address more than one area.
Let’s Art About It
Let’s Art About It is an art therapy program designed to express, explore, and understand emotions through painting, sculpting, and illustration. Through this program our residents are able to express themselves in a safe, healthy, and creative way.
WHAT IS THE OAKLAND COUNTY CHILDREN’S VILLAGE FOUNDATION
The Foundation provides financial support and other resources to the Oakland County Children’s Village for projects including, but not limited to, those that promote, enrich, prevent, rehabilitate, and offer educational support to the Children’s Village residents, families, and staff.
The Foundation also provides support for a project called Teacher’s Pet which pairs at risk youth with dogs from the Oakland County Pet Adoption Center. The children work with the dogs, preparing them for adoption. The dogs help the children with various trust issues as well as confidence building, It also provides support for the Dale Carnegie Teen Program that gives at risk teens training to help them for when they are released back to their parents.
All funding disbursed by the Oakland County Children’s Village Foundation follows the established guidelines outlined in the mission statement. The Oakland County Children’s Village Foundation is recognized as a public foundation under 501c(3) by the Internal Revenue Service and is therefore tax exempt.