Starfish Family Services

Strengthening families to create brighter futures for children

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Starfish Family Blog: Beat the winter blahs!

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It’s important to stay active even during the dreary Michigan winter months. When it’s too chilly to go outside on the playground, our teachers come up with super fun activities for our kiddos to do indoors. We’ve captured some super “chill” ideas for you to do at home.

  1. Make paper snowflakes to bring the outdoors inside. And hang them in unexpected places.
  2. Play board games! Yup, they still exist and it gives you a chance to introduce your kids to your favorites when you were little.
  3. Build a nifty “snow fort” indoors with blankets and pillows and empty boxes. Or maybe even a rocket ship out of a large cardboard box, using recyclable materials around the house for controls (e.g., bottle caps or empty toilet paper rolls)
  4. Make a pine-cone bird feeder with peanut butter and birdseed. Hang it outside your window.
  5. Guess how much snow is on the ground. Then grab a ruler and see who came the closest.
  6. Draw and color a winter-scene mural and hang it inside. Snap a photo and send to friends.
  7. Use leftover wrapping paper to draw and cut out life-size pictures of your family.
  8. Safe sumo wrestling! Clear out a space in the living room and line the corners with pillows. Let your children borrow an old T-shirt of yours, stuff it with pillows in the front and back, and let them wrestle away.
  9. Marshmallow architects! Use dry spaghetti and marshmallows and let the creativity flow. Experiment with the strength of different shapes and configurations or use this opportunity to introduce geometry to your little ones.
  10. A reading nook is perfect for cozy family time. Check out a giant bag of books from your local library and when you return home, build a reading nook with pillows, blankets, and favorite stuffed animals. Then snuggle down for a reading marathon.

Starfish Family Blog: 2019 National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day

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Starfish Family Services, the go-to resource for infant and children’s mental health in Michigan

May observes the 70th annual National Mental Health Awareness Month, while May 9 is National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day. In recognition of Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day, and to shine a spotlight on empowerment, our entire staff of nearly 450 sported custom-made, lime-green T-shirts and ribbons. Our message? #StrongChildren #StrongFamilies #StrongStarfish.

Mental health awareness is vital as depression, anxiety, and behavioral disorders in children continues to increase. According to the Centers for Disease Control, one in six children ages 2 – 8 has a mental, behavioral, or developmental disorder. These conditions contribute to the growing number of adolescents and young adults who are attempting or dying by suicide.

In recent years, mental health has come to the forefront of national conversations from politics to the medical community to social media. Starfish has been committed to mental health awareness since our inception in 1963. Our mission to strengthen families to create brighter futures for children can only be done with wholistic health and wellness in mind. We are devoted to mental health awareness and celebrate each child and family that has breakthroughs in our programs.

Starfish does everything possible to embrace and embody the tenet “Children’s Mental Health Matters.” Two groundbreaking individuals in the field, Jennifer Jonika and Karol Wilson, are child mental health champions who complete hands-on work every day to provide high-quality programs that support child development.

About Jennifer Jonika: Jonika is the Director of Maternal and Early Childhood Clinical Services at Starfish and Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health Board President. She has been serving Starfish since 2003 and currently operates creative programming for at-risk young children. She has tripled the size of maternal and early childhood behavioral health services at Starfish. Jonika’s programs provide opportunities for young children to express themselves in a healthy way. She provides tools for the long-term success of families by working with both mothers and young children.

About Karol Wilson: Wilson has over 20 years of experience and won the 2019 Selma Fraiberg Award for her outstanding work with Michigan infants, children, and families. She is the first African American to achieve endorsement as an Infant Mental Health Mentor. In addition to being a published researcher, Wilson presents her work at conferences and workshops across the globe. At Starfish, she co-supervises the “Partnering with Parents” program and helped develop our “Baby Power” program—both of which empower young children and families.

Baby Power is a 10-week intervention program for mothers with young children that includes home visits and group therapy to aid the mental-health of new moms via stress reduction exercises to decrease the risk of maternal depression and anxiety. Partnering with Parents offers in-home and center-based supports for families with children up to age 5 to encourage infant/toddler advancement through counseling and parenting techniques to overcome behavioral challenges.

Through the work of both Jonika and Wilson, and other stellar team members, Starfish provides personable, expert-driven care to our families. Our programs advocate on behalf of one of the most vulnerable groups of our population and treat the challenges they face with expedience and warmth. Jonika and Wilson offer a glimpse of the highly qualified and talented staff at Starfish.

 Click here to read more about our behavioral health services.

Human Services program selects five organizations for Detroit Next Generation initiative

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Detroit is first place-based NextGen city
The Kresge Foundation, February 4, 2019

Five organizations working to improve social and economic mobility for children and families in Detroit have been selected by the Kresge Foundation’s Human Services Program to participate in its Detroit Next Generation initiative.

This initiative, which builds off Human Services’ national NextGen efforts, is an integral part of Kresge’s commitment to advance the human services sector and accelerate social and economic mobility for people with low income. Detroit is the first place-based, NextGen city.

This initiative, which builds off Human Services’ national NextGen efforts, is an integral part of Kresge’s commitment to advance the human services sector and accelerate social and economic mobility for people with low income. Detroit is the first place-based, NextGen city.

The goal of the NextGen initiative is to support organizations that are committed to person centered, outcomes-based, data-driven work that advances racial equity as they work to improve outcomes for children and families living in poverty in Detroit.

The two-year program consists of three components:

  1. Leadership development;
  2. Building a learning and collaboration network; and
  3. Creating organizational and cohort action plans designed to advance and accelerate social and economic mobility using a two-generation, whole-family approach.

Grantees have been awarded $250,000 each and will receive support to form a learning and
collaboration network.

The Detroit Next Generation Initiative grantee partners include:

“Frontline providers in the human services sector play a critical role in advancing social and economic mobility,” said Joelle Jude-Fontaine, senior program officer for Kresge’s national Human Services program. “Over the next two years, these organizations will have the opportunity to learn from each other and national experts around the country and become a network that collectively works to integrate the delivery of services and supports to improve outcomes for children and families living in Detroit.”

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Strengthening families to create brighter futures for children.

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