Succeeding Beyond Emancipation: Reuel Mack's Story

By C.J. Hirschfield

Five years ago, I wrote a column about an extraordinary young woman, Reuel Mack, who’d been referred to Fairyland from an organization called Beyond Emancipation, which is Alameda County’s primary provider of services for former foster youth. Reuel had been in the foster system, in many different homes, for most of her life. As a child, she never knew her biological mother. Her father was in jail. She eventually learned she has 11 siblings.

Today I’m proud to share with you a very happy update to Reuel’s story – a story that Reuel herself will tell the guests at our 23^rd annual gala fundraiser on Wednesday, May 30.

A Day in the Life at Primary Care

By C.J. Hirschfield

A 10-year-old boy in foster care comes out of his shell after completing a program at Fairyland that teaches him how to be an expert animal caretaker.

A 6-year-old boy, being raised by his grandmother after his brother was shot, enjoys coming with her to a place where he can be a kid again.

An elementary school student in East Oakland wins a Fairyland family pass in a library reading contest, and regularly takes the bus with her mom to delight in our laid-back reading room and literacy-rich activities.

The 2016 Junior Animal Caretaker group enjoys a visit from the Oakland Zoo's Zoomobile, one of several Fairyland community resources for underserved families.

An autistic child surprises his mom by boldly swallowing an edible flower during a horticultural therapy session in Fairyland’s gardens.

We’ve seen how our low-tech, high-touch park can have a markedly therapeutic effect on kids and their family members who have experienced trauma and other challenges.

Which is why we are so pleased that our newest board member, primary care pediatrician Javay Ross, understands the role Children’s Fairyland can play in helping families heal and thrive, and will help us move even further in that direction.

Dr. Javay Ross, Fairyland's newest board member.

We asked Javay, who works at an Oakland clinic for UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland (BCHO), to make a presentation at our last board meeting about the state of pediatric health in Oakland. She decided the best way to do that would be to draw from her actual experience: a day in the life in primary care. She chose a few patients from the 12 she saw during a single day.

Here are a few of them, in her own words:

The Healing Magic of Fairyland

By C.J. Hirschfield

Last weekend was graduation day for the kids in foster care who had completed Fairyland’s Junior Animal Caretaker (JAC) program. To celebrate, we threw a little party with hot dogs, lemonade, a cake and a visit from the Oakland Zoomobile.

Graduating Junior Animal Caretakers meet a snake from the Oakland Zoomobile.

We started our grant-funded JAC program five years ago, and have discovered its healing effect.

JAC is individualized, with 90-minute therapeutic sessions for children age 8 to 12 who have experienced trauma. Participants are referred to us by local agencies (primarily court-appointed special advocates); all have experienced abuse or other extreme stress.

In learning to care for our animals, these kids learn empathy and responsibility. Most important, they learn that they too are worthy of loving care.