A Holiday Wish
Dear Supporter and Friend of SAY,

In this season of thanks and celebration, Social Advocates for Youth wishes you the best.  From our family to yours, happy holidays.

Warmest regards,

Tom Bieri, Executive Director

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Sonoma City Council Passes SAY Sponsored Social Host Ordinance

The Sonoma City Council passed an ordinance to charge parents who knowingly allow drug use and teen drinking in their homes with a misdemeanor. Danielle Ronshausen, SAY’s Environmental Prevention Coordinator successfully lead the efforts of the Sonoma Valley Coalition to Prevent Teen Drinking in sponsoring the new ordinance.

The Sonoma Index Tribune covered the story in a front page article today and we encourage you to read the full story on their website.

Read More

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The BIG Thank You is a BIG Success

On November 9th, SAY hosted The BIG Thank You at the Fountaingrove Inn, an event honoring SAY’s donors and volunteers.
The BIG Thank You, generously sponsored by Fountaingrove Inn, honored supporters like Willie Tamayo, Bill Friedman, Barbara Konicek, and Marcus Benedetti.  Volunteer of the Year, Board Member of the Year, and New Board Member of the Year were named!
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Judy James of Clover Stornetta Joins Board

The SAY Board of Directors was happy to welcome Judy James, Director of Community Relations for Clover Stornetta Farms this month.

Judy, former Executive Director of Sonoma County Farm Bureau and owner of James Family Cellars, will be an important board leader, supporting our relationship with Sonoma County’s agricultural and wine communities.  In addition, Judy’s public relations experience greatly enhances SAY’s marketing capacity.  Welcome aboard Judy!

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SAY’s New Website Launches 12/4

Social Advocates for Youth has partnered with Jamie Spooner and Planeteria to redesign our website.  Our goal is to offer parents, youth, and community a resource that is engaging, informative, and easy to navigate.  SAY is proud to announce that our new website will be English-Spanish bilingual and ADA compliant, making it accessible to much wider audience.

We’ve built our new website to be a bridge between the family in crisis, the youth in need, the community member seeking information, the donor who is looking to give back, and SAY.

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Jynessa Lazzaroni, Youth Board Member Extraordinaire

As part of our commitment to helping youth and families help themselves, we know it’s important to make sure that we are listening to all of the members of the SAY community, from clients and staff to donors and volunteers. That’s why we are so happy to welcome 19 year old Jynessa Lazzaroni to our Board of Directors!

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A Mixer with Meaning: SAY Tours

It will be the best lunch mixer you’ve been to in a LONG time!

Forty-five minutes is all it will take to to see how the Reverend James E Coffee House homeless and runaway teen shelter and the Mary and Jose Tamayo House transitional living housing change lives and our community each and every day.

Come meet SAY’s Youth Ambassadors!  Mixers are monthly.  December’s Mixers with Meaning are 12:00-1:15PM on the following dates:

Coffee House: Tuesday, 12/8
Get Directions

Tamayo House: Thursday, 12/10
Get Directions

RSVP: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

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Ask the Editor

What is Social Advocates for Youth?

How many youth does SAY serve?

How can I help or get more informed?

What do YOU want to know about SAY?  Do you have a thought or opinion you’d like to share?  Drop The SAY Connection editor a line!  Your inquiries and feedback are important to Social Advocates for Youth!

Email the editor: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

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Donate Now!

It’s tax credit time.  98% of SAY’s services are free because of support from friends like you.  In addition, please know that when you donate $1 to programs such as SAY’s Functional Family Therapy, you save Sonoma County $28!  It’s a win-win-win.

Make a difference in a young life today, Donate Now!

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Social Advocates for Youth is pleased to announce Jynessa Lazarroni, 19, has joined its board of directors with the goal of giving the young people who depend on SAY’s programs and services a greater role in the agency’s management.

Jynessa is a foster youth who recently aged out of the foster care system. She was named the board’s youth representative in mid October.  Fellow board member Nancy Fastenau says Jynessa’s unique insight, along with her energy and creativity, will help SAY better serve Sonoma County’s at-risk children and families.

“I am excited to have Jynessa on the board because she has expertise about SAY’s programs and services that adult members do not,” Fastenau explained. “I truly believe an organization that serves primarily young people needs to hear from and work with young people to be relevant in the field.  SAY will be better for including Jynessa in a leadership role.”

Jynessa sees her new position as a natural progression in her relationship with SAY. A foster child for more than 10 years, Jynessa became involved with Social Advocates for Youth several years ago when she was diagnosed with depression and got help through SAY’s counseling services. She later found a job through its youth employment program. And a year ago, she moved into SAY’s Tamayo House for emancipated foster children, quickly becoming an ambassador for the transitional living center on Yulupa Avenue.

“A lot of the support I’ve received in the past few years came through SAY,” she explains. “They’ve made a huge difference for me. The people at SAY have really motivated me to be the best person I could be instead of giving up. Physically and emotionally, I wouldn’t be as far along as I am.”

For example, Jynessa believes that without Tamayo House, she’d be struggling with housing and other basics. She doubts she’d be happily juggling the busy schedule she now keeps: a part-time job, classes at Santa Rosa Junior College and volunteering to help other foster youth find their footing when they leave the system.

In addition to her work with SAY, Jynessa is a founding member and event coordinator of Voices, a nonprofit organization offering guidance to teens and young adults aging out of foster care. Run by foster children for foster children, Voices started in Napa in five years ago and expanded to Santa Rosa earlier this year.

As a SAY board member, Jynessa’s priorities are to get more young people participating in the discussions and decisions concerning the agency’s offerings and to consistently present the point of view of those who rely on Social Advocates for help.

“I think starting there is definitely a first step,” she said.

Jynessa’s also ready to make a case for the need for donors and volunteers. “I would really like to tell people that investing in young people is an investment in the world and the future. Knowing we’re the up-and-coming leaders, why wouldn’t you invest in us? I don’t think there’s anything more valuable than that.”

Social Advocates for Youth offers education, counseling, job training, mentoring and substance abuse prevention services for children, teenagers and their parents. Its Rev. James E. Coffee House Shelter provides crisis intervention for runaway and homeless youth. And SAY’s Tamayo House Transitional Living Facility houses young adults who have aged out of foster care or have serious mental illness. Social Advocates for Youth has offices in Santa Rosa, Sonoma, and Healdsburg.

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