Help break the cycle of child abuse. Our volunteer agency help strengthen parenting and problem-solving skills, thus reducing the risk of child abuse and neglect.

Family Outreach Clear Lake/Bay Area works to create a bridge between those individuals who have had effective parenting models and those that need more help in dealing with this critical relationship. One of the clearest cases of this was a 17 year old young mother, named Stacy. Stacy's mother had been in a nursing home after suffering a stroke when Stacy was 10 years old and by the time Stacy was 15, her father was a full blown alcoholic, her brother had left home, her mother was mentally and physically incapacitated and Stacy was on her own. By the age of 16, Stacy was pregnant; at 18 she had two children. Stacy sought help from Family Outreach, a volunteer met with her on a bi-monthly basis, offering support and encouragement as Stacy began to learn appropriate ways of raising her children. Because she did not have a healthy role model as she was growing up, even the simplest of tasks were sometimes a struggle. For Stacy, following bedtime routines, registering her children for school, asking the pediatrician about medications, or giving "time outs" were new experiences. Stacy's children are older now. They look to their mother for support, discipline, and affection. Thanks, in part, to her Family Outreach volunteer, Stacy is able to afford that luxury for her children… a gift that was easily given in the form of only a few hours a month by a caring volunteer.