A Letter from the Executive
Director
Dearest colleagues, friends, children,
families and communities of PARTNERS,
Through my years of clinical work, I recognized the need to
advocate for children who couldn’t speak for themselves. I had been
exposed to children who repeatedly were not given the same
opportunities and best services. In the hope to address this
gap, I founded PARTNERS in 2001 on the core values of respect,
diversity, and equality for all.
Our organization is called PARTNERS because it’s all about
partnerships between families and therapists who come
together. The goal is to create a stronger bond between the
parent and the child: a partnership. PARTNERS as a team
connects with the community; we have a duty to the community and we
learn from the community. This is part of our
coalition-building in Queens and throughout New York State and
nationally. PARTNERS uses therapeutic models that represent
best practices, that are known to help and that are available to
the Queens community.
PARTNERS stands for Preventing Adverse Reactions to Negative Events
and Related Stress. But what does that really mean?
PARTNERS identifies children and families who have been through
scary, difficult and extremely sad times and who struggle to move
on from those stressful life events. Services provided by
PARTNERS help clients ease their pain and prevent the development
of more difficult problems down the road.
We use the term preventing because we believe in the inner strength
of children and families. We know that if we intervene
in a timely way we can reconnect children to their families, to
their educational success, to their peers. We can also reduce
the anxiety, depression, and the anger they may be feeling.
We use the term reactions to negative events and related stress
because these reactions to a certain degree are expected; they are
typical, they are understandable. But it doesn’t mean they
can’t be helped. And that is where PARTNERS comes in.
As the Executive Director of PARTNERS, I feel strongly that I have
a responsibility to our children of today and tomorrow. That
is why training is such a key part of PARTNERS. We partner
with other professionals in the community to extend their already
strong knowledge-base with the goal of growing more expertise in
the area of trauma and stress.
I believe that PARTNERS helps directly by working with families and
children. We reach a broader community through our training
endeavors and we reach an even broader community through our
research endeavors. PARTNERS team is dedicated to publishing
and presenting the findings from the studies we conduct. We
conduct these studies using state-of-the-art science to allow us to
draw conclusions about what might best serve families. In the
broadest way, PARTNERS is a partnership between academic settings
where science is developed and the real world where science should
be implemented.
All of the above represents my view, my mission, my vision, my
daily goals and responsibilities. Why do I do this work? How
do I do this work? The answer is: the families. I am humbled by
every client with whom I have had the pleasure to work, either
directly as a clinician or indirectly with my trainees and the
other professionals with whom I work. What children and
adults can go through and grow from is amazing to me. Every
story is a beautiful one and again a humbling one. I feel so
honored to work with the children and families who choose to come
to PARTNERS.
I am incredibly blessed to have graduate students in psychology
from across the country elect to work with me in PARTNERS.
Additionally, I have a wonderful multi-disciplinary staff who is
dedicated to changing the life of traumatized children.
Lastly, I have been honored to be mentored by and collaborate with
national and international experts in the areas of trauma and
stress.
This is my life’s purpose and I am thankful everyday for the
ability to do this work.
Thank you so much for your generous support and participation in
PARTNERS. May this new year of 2008-2009 be full of healing,
strength, sharing and PARTNERShips.
Sincerely yours,
Elissa J. Brown, Ph.D.
Executive Director of the PARTNERS
Program