Though we don’t have the privilege of seeing our wonderful board members at school every day, our board is an instrumental part of running Cheerful Helpers. Boards assume a huge amount of responsibility for nonprofits like ours. Among other key functions, they are tasked with making decisions around strategy and with planning for long-term success.

At Cheerful Helpers, we have a dedicated team of board members who meet monthly. In addition, the board comprises several subcommittees that meet more frequently, so they can be responsive to pressing issues and changes. All members are volunteers, and generously use their time to support the school. Our board is a mixture of alumni parents, alumni staff, and community members.

During the height of the pandemic, the board kept us together, working tirelessly to apply to as many emergency funding opportunities as possible. These included a small business loan, and two rounds of PPP. But that’s not all: the board also helped us to secure our new building, which we moved into in 2021, to our delight. The board continues to support our fundraising efforts, and we are beyond grateful for their skill and commitment to ensuring Cheerful Helpers can always offer the services it does.

Because many of our board members are alumni parents and alumni staff, they help us retain our institutional memory, providing a through-line to our values and history. They help us recall beautiful shared memories, as well as hard times and how to overcome them. Our Board Roster,  gives an idea of how long people have been on the board.

Being on the board is also a meaningful position for members themselves. For board member and alumna parent Jackie Sloan, it’s a very personal role. “Cheerful Helpers helped my family navigate extremely challenging times. Serving on the Board of Directors has given me the chance to give back to this unique, powerful agency. When our daughter was young and we were struggling, Cheerful Helpers offered guidance and hope.  Serving on the Board helps ensure that Cheerful Helpers continues to thrive so that families like mine have somewhere to turn.” Administrative Coordinator Reyna Alvarez shares her feelings regarding our Board and their impact on the agency,  "I’m beyond grateful to the Board for challenging our team and believing in us. I know this is only the beginning for Cheerful Helpers and with a Board like ours, it can only get better."❤️

We are so grateful for our hard-working, dedicated, and community-minded board members. We look forward to many more years of working together!

1st graders continue to work on their crystal projects and are learning about rocks and creating rock gardens.

Rebeca's class is working on Mother's Day projects and talking about feelings related to their mothers. Student's started "Show and Tell."

Erin's class is really interested in doing puzzles together and celebrating proud feeling with high fives.

Groups meet three times a week. In the story- telling group kids are starting to read chapter books.

As the end of the academic year and the summer months approach, we want to take a moment to acknowledge our MSW interns from UCLA who will be completing their internships and saying a big goodbye to us in May. Since the beginning of the school year, our MSW trainees, Carolina and Emma, have had the opportunity to gain valuable hands-on clinical experience working with our children and families while also supporting the office with more macro-level work, such as working on the annual report, fundraising coordination, film projects, and newsletter writing. I (Tatum Schwartz), joined the team in January, and have had a similarly enriching experience here.  On an exciting note, Sam, our second year MSW intern from USC, has accepted a permanent position with us to continue on with Cheerful Helpers next year!

Compared to the Marriage and Family Therapy (MFT) program, MSW internships are typically broader in scope, focusing on various areas of social work practice, such as incorporating both micro and macro lenses to approach social issues and deficits in equity. First-year MSW students are required to complete 16 hours per week of field education, which they typically fulfill here on Mondays and Wednesdays. Second-year MSW students are required to complete an additional 4 hours of fieldwork, and typically fulfill their internship duties on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. In all, our UCLA interns will have completed 504 hours with us by the time they say goodbye at the end of the month. 

Upon reflecting on their training here at Cheerful Helpers, each of our MSW interns would like to share a sentiment from their internship experience. Emma Christie shared, “Cheerful Helpers and their unique pedagogy have shown me that the lessons we learn in childhood are universal and help us well into adult life. Being in the classroom at CH with our brilliant, kind and emotionally intelligent students and staff has helped me to take on the messages we always talk about in class: being kind and gentle to oneself, checking in with others, being real about our feelings, and extending compassion to both our peers and ourselves. It has been a delight and a privilege to share time with our guys and learn with them, and to feel like we've supported them in their life journeys.” Carolina Maranian shared similar sentiments by speaking about her growth here. She noted, “Before my time at Cheerful Helpers I had no experience working with children and families. After spending the past three quarters here, my life has been transformed and I cannot imagine a clinical future without supporting this population. Spending time in the classroom with our little, but mighty humans taught me the importance of being present, allowed me to find my own voice in the narrative language we use - one that is authentic to me and uses the “yes / and” anthem.  I saw how to ensure the success of a child takes collective effort. By not only celebrating the wins, but being brave in saying the real thing and not holding back feelings even when a big cry may arise. I am immensely grateful for my time at CH to have worked alongside a passionate and equally kind interdisciplinary team, to have been a one-to-one, and to have filmed and documented our CH community stories.”

As an MSW intern myself, I can attest to the immense benefits of this experience. When I arrived in January, the staff here at Cheerful Helpers welcomed me with open arms and more kindness than I have experienced in any other position. Right from the beginning, it was clear that the staff here really cares not only about our children and families but about making work here an enriching and valuable experience. The conjunction of being pushed and supported has made my time here truly special and incredibly transformative in my growth as a social worker. Cheerful helpers emphasizes fostering a space of growth, kindness, safety, and warmth, and this was clear from the very beginning of my time here. My internship experience here provided me with opportunities to develop clinical skills and find new ways to implement kindness and gentleness into my practice which I will take with me for years to come. I will miss working with every last one of the phenomenal staff members and families that I have had the pleasure of getting to know over these 5 months.

This month in honor of May being Teacher Appreciation Month, we highlight our wonderful teachers at Cheerful Helpers, Rebeca and Richard - and missing Erin - who share what inspired them to become a teacher. Be sure to click on the video to hear them talk about their favorite activities they have taught students. Thank you to our incredible teachers - we are so grateful for all that you do!