Flawless Care

We are so excited about the launch of our gardening program. The interest from our donors has been off the charts, and we are so grateful. At first, we started with a small garden tended to by a group of 7- to 9-year-old boys at the Pioneer Special School in Portland. It warmed my heart yesterday to walk into the school and watch the boys pulling radishes from the ground and in turn eating them. They were also measuring the growth of their carrots with great enthusiasm and delight.

We have so far established two gardens in honor of two very special people:

The first garden is in memory of Seanog McCarney, the brother of our dear board member and corporate sponsor, Alice Mc Carney.  The second is a garden of miracles honoring Stacey Sibley for the extraordinary care and leadership of the Pioneer Special School. 

                            

                          to the Seanog McCarney Garden of Miracle

                          to the Stacey Sibley Garden of Miracles

Flawless Girls Group

One of our most exciting projects right now is our work with at-risk adolescent girls, many of whom are living in foster care, who face many serious challenges, including eating disorders, suicidality, self-mutilation and drug and alcohol abuse.

Janine and Emily have launched a coaching program to work on self-esteem/empowerment issues. We get together to chat, teach the girls how to celebrate themselves and their progress and work on various fun projects together. One of the core aspects of the program is teaching them about gratitude and about being of service.

Some of our past activities have included yoga and Nia classes, art activities, volunteer activities with younger children, as well as a clothing swap.

Flawless is so excited about our partnership with Street Yoga, an inspiring organization that is facilitating the tools for at-risk youth, to create a sense of "home" and peace in their lives.

Our collaboration in bringing yoga classes and staff development workshops to the faculty and students at our pilot program, the Pioneer school, has been extremely successful. We currently have five classes per week at the school and the

response has been very positive.

To learn more visit www.streetyoga.org

"These yoga classes have been the highlight of my year"

1. -John, one of the social workers at Pioneer
   

“The yoga with the kids has been fantastic. We have an hour every Thursday, and we have incredibly skilled instructors that are funded through the Flawless Foundation. It’s been amazing seeing boys that are between age eight and 10 actually learn, gradually, the skills to be calm during the storm of change.”

1. -Ed Keating, Licensed Clinical Social Worker and Pioneer Special Schools Consultant
   

Nia is a body/mind fitness program that combines martial arts, dance and yoga.

To learn more visit www.nianow.com.

Professional Development for Clinicians, Educators, and Parents

Learn more about how to approach challenging kids with Dr. Stuart Ablon.

Click here for the full interview.

--

We support trainings for  professionals who work with youth who have behavioral challenges in the following areas: yoga, the arts, adolescent girls and gardening.

Pioneer Special School

Flawless has been so inspired by the incredible staff and administration that work at the Pioneer Special School that we have chosen them to be our pilot site.

Click here to find out more about this project.

The Arts

Flawless Music Group

We are very happy and pleased to announce the formation of our first music program! Through a very generous anonymous donation, Flawless has purchased and provided guitars to some very eager middle  school and high school students!

Marion (pictured with Janine) will head Flawless's inaugural music education program. 

Flawless Music Inspiration: Dan Zanes

We are so thrilled and grateful that Dan Zanes performed at our perfection party. The crowd was wildly enthusiastic and insisted on an encore. Dan was so gracious and he rocked the house. After his performance, we created an impromptu special fund for music programs that raised over $5,000 in under 6 minutes after Dan inspired everyone with his speech and performance. Thank you Dan and Yvette for joining us.

$75 for one music class for 15 children with special needs

$100 for a guitar for a teenager who has no access to music instruction or instruments

$100 for a music therapist to lead a community sing-along for 75 children

Click the Donate button below if you would like to give the gift of music to a child who faces serious challenges in his/her daily life.

Flawless Music Inspiration:  The Soloist, by Steve Lopez

The Los Angeles Times columnist becomes an unlikely advocate and friend to a mentally ill homeless man who was once a musical prodigy.  Steve Lopez, talking about Nathaniel Ayers, the gifted musician whose struggle with schizophrenia is featured in The Soloist, had this to say:

"He may never take antipsychotic meds, but he has the advantage of music working just like medicine."

"The movie and his life are celebrations of music."

Obo Addy

We just launched an amazing drumming program at Pioneer Special School.  The first assembly was rockin the school and follow up lessons and workshops for teachers are planned.  We also donated beautiful African Drums to the school so they can continue the drumming as the interest has been tremendous and oh so healing.

“I wanted to let you know that the assembly last Friday featuring Obo Addy was simply fantastic. This was the first time ever that we had all 150 students in one place together.  We were a bit apprehensive about it but the students in all grades enjoyed themselves so much.  They were dancing and clapping to the drumming and music and it was crystal clear how healing it was - the kids came alive.  It was so exciting to watch the musicians go into the audience several times to bring students and staff up onto the stage to dance. It was truly a big hit. Some of the students, who were a little shy about dancing in front of their peers, went out into the halls to dance. It was so sweet.  Thank you so much for being a part of bringing so much joy to our students. We are very thankful for Flawless' support.” --Joyce Moore, Therapeutic Intervention Coach

We also made a gift to ChristieCare to support their native american music program at their incredible Cedar Bough program.  Cedar Bough provides mental health support for  Native American youth and their families.