For One Employee, the Holidays are a Full-Time Job

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Having served as the President & CEO’s Executive Assistant for seven years, leading holiday decorating at Children’s Institute was not originally in Josh Pleiness’ job description. When a contractor fell through for decorating the Otis Booth Campus five years ago, Josh jumped at the opportunity.

It doesn’t take much time talking to Josh to realize he loves the holidays. He puts up three different trees at home and has so many decorations personally, he needs a separate storage unit. This December, he wrapped up another year decorating the Otis Booth Campus as well as the Long Beach, Watts, Burton Green and Mid-Wilshire campuses.

“There’s always something going on in my head,” he said. “I do thoroughly enjoy holiday decorating, but everything I do stresses me out sometimes.”

Josh described both of his parents as creative and being the original inspiration for his enthusiasm for the holidays. He fondly remembers his family bonding over putting ornaments on trees and stringing garland.

Growing up with one parent in the military, he got to experience how different regions celebrated. He spent time in Florida, Germany, Michigan and Alaska. When he got his degree in interior design and interior decoration from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, he saw an opportunity to apply those skills to holiday decorating.

“It is all about families being together and spending time together.”

At CII, Josh sees an extra level of importance in his work. The decorations are a chance for the children and families served at CII to feel togetherness during the holidays. For many, past Decembers may have been a difficult or even traumatic time. Josh’s work helps provide a backdrop for happier memories and experiences.

“It is all about families being together and spending time together,” he said.

Josh remembers one year when a boy around the age of six had just come out of a therapy room. He was in a program that works with school-aged children, and clearly upset about something. He had just been crying. Josh invited him over to help him put the ornaments on the tree. Josh said he joined him in decorating for quite some time and the boy was eventually laughing at the end of it.

Experiences like these motivate Josh to go above and beyond simply pulling decorations out of storage and putting them up. Last year, he built a giant dreidel from scratch. A previous year he noticed the paint chipping off the ornaments so he carefully hand painted them to stay within budget and ensure everything looked perfect.

Knowing that the end of the year can be a stressful month for many staff, Josh sees the decoration as an opportunity to bring happiness to staff who may be feeling stretched. He said staff will often approach him and say how much they appreciate the decorations. It is something many look forward to during this time of year.

While Josh’s dream would be to one day design and decorate the holiday celebration at the White House, he is happy knowing how many people appreciate his work at CII. Josh jokingly said the only downside to all of his work is that it eventually must come down.

“If it were up to me, I’d leave it up all year,” he said.

The Gift of Possibilities

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My name is LaRae and I’m a working mother of four children. I survived years of living in a violent household, as a child and into my adulthood. I have fought to keep my children safe, because they are the most precious and important people in my life. Our family has experienced significant trauma, including multiple incidents of gun violence, personal injury, murder and homelessness.

I grew up in the projects in South LA where I learned very fast that I had to get tough, even though I was a child who didn’t like violence. One day, my dad sat me in a folding chair and invited all the neighborhood kids to hit and kick me. Afterwards, he said, “Now are you mad enough to go and fight?”

Throughout my life, I was also struggling with my own internal battle. I was constantly under the pressure of thoughts that the world and I just didn’t fit. I lived over 20 years of my life suicidal and it reached a point where I couldn’t take care of my children. This is when I was introduced to Children’s Institute. I didn’t know much about myself at that time. The therapist would say, “We are going to explore how to identify our feelings,” and I would start to release every secret I’d been holding throughout my life that I’d been ashamed of, or had weighed me down. I told it all — I got free.

Children’s Institute has been a part of my journey from contemplating the worst to accomplishing the best. From teaching me how to create a new vision for my life that is centered on purposeful living and stability, to attending conferences to help me transition back into work.

All four of my children benefited from Children’s Institute’s therapeutic programs teaching us to work together as a family, learning how to build healthy relationships with ourselves, with one another, and also with our community.

Today, my family is doing great, and we are exactly where we are supposed to be — happy, healthy and safe.

Happy Holidays,

 

 

Make a difference in the lives of children and families with an end-of-year donation this holiday season.

 

Dr. Todd Sosna Named Chief Program Officer at Children’s Institute

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We’re pleased to announce that Todd Sosna, Ph.D. has been named Children’s Institute’s Chief Program Officer effective today.

In this new role, Dr. Sosna will lead all Early Education, Behavioral Health, Family Strengthening and Community Innovations programs for the agency, overseeing a budget of more than $70 million and a staff of 800.

Dr. Sosna has served as Interim Senior Vice President of Clinical Services at Children’s Institute since April 2018 and held the role of Senior VP for Program Evaluation and Improvement from 2012 to 2014.

“Over the past eight months, Dr. Sosna has demonstrated strong leadership, collaboration and accountability, and has fostered strong morale throughout the reorganization of our clinical and community programs. We currently have the unique opportunity to unify our broad array of services to achieve lasting impact for the children and families we serve, and I am confident Dr. Sosna is the best suited candidate for this crucial role,” said Martine Singer, President & CEO, Children’s Institute.

“As Chief Program Officer, I look forward to strengthening CII’s position as a leader in child trauma, behavioral health and early education, and deepening partnerships with other community-based organizations, funders and policymakers,” said Dr. Sosna, Chief Program Officer, Children’s Institute.

Dr. Sosna’s prior positions have included Senior VP of Operations for Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles, Deputy Director for the California Institute for Mental Health and Assistant Director for Santa Barbara County Alcohol, Drug and Mental Health Services. He is known for developing Santa Barbara County’s nationally recognized multi-agency Integrated Children’s System of Care, advancing California’s large scale dissemination of evidence-based practices, leading child welfare and juvenile justice reforms, and establishing early childhood mental health programs in partnership with Head Start agencies.

Dr. Sosna earned his doctorate in clinical psychology from Washington State University in 1991, and is a member of the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).