volkswagen reward card on select 2015 jetta models. or lease a 2015 jetta s for $139 a month after a $1000 volkswagen bonus. good morning thanks so much for joining us on this "viewpoint". i'm erika gonzalez and today's topic is back to school. here at nbc 4 always very important for us to do everything we can to try to get our kids off to a great start. but today we are specifically talking about children in our community that really need a lot of protection and a lot of provision as they start the school year. so with me, a host of women that really know all about this subject, really experts in the field. so first i would like to introduce donna fortier founder of mobile home. wendy gradison ceo of prs and piper phillips ceo of phillips programs for children and families. ladies thank you so much for joining us today.

i really appreciate it. this is an exciting time. a lot of work. i appreciate you taking time out of your schedules to talk to us. as children, parents ramping up their days or months to try to get back into the flow of getting back to school, it's important that really our kids have everything that they need to start the school year, but that's not really a reality for a lot of kids in the area. and it's a stressful time as well. stressful for kids. stressful for parents. whether because, maybe the fact that they don't have the supplies that they need adds to that. can we speak to some of the stressor, pressures as parents and kids in the area are going through right now as they prepare to go back to school. >> when you think about teens that's such a vulnerable time and these young people are struggling with so many issues. returning to school not having their routines yet. they are struggling with anxiety, with stress, with depression. some are contemplating suicide. >> as teenagers. >> as teenagers.

some are dealing with issues around coming out. family challenges. eating disorders. self-injury. there's just so many areas that this vulnerable group is struggling with. >> so going back to school, is that not -- are they not comforted by the fact that they are starting some type of a pattern, some normalcy, a schedule every day, seeing their friends. doesn't that help the situation? >> it will but initially it's hard because they don't know what their new routine and rhythm will be. there's so much social anxiety with these people. they care so much what their peers think. in a few weeks they will have settled in. this inshow going back to school is a tough time. >> would you like to chime in? >> i agree. finding normalcy that these kids lack and having stress at home and not knowing what will happen at school is very difficult. and not wanting to stand out amongst their peers. they want to fit in like everybody else, have the new

clothes and have the school supplies. >> piper, what is normalcy. what does that look like? is that a case by case basis or what does back to school normal look like for kids in families that need the most support? >> well, i would agree that there's a tremendous increase in anxiety. so you really have to address that and you can do that in different ways. you can have your child visit the school ahead of time. meet the teacher. go through the routine, those sorts of things to begin to decrease that anxiety. and you may see it manifest it in different ways. you may see meltdowns or outbutters or more inward kind of behaviors. so you got to be thinking about that and preparing for that and i think as a parent you have to realize that you may see some of these changes. and stay calm. reach out for support. reach out for help at the school and in the community if you do

have concerns. >> i want to mention very quickly you all have a program coming up, a campaign, minds matter. the #mindsmatter. we have a couple seconds left in this block. >> if you go to our website, you can learn how you can take the pledge for #mindsmatter so you can engage with us in suicide prevention, improving mental health, take a stress test, get your family and friends involved. we're gearing up for suicide prevention week. you'll find out how you can join one of the suicide prevention walks online as well. >> we're far from done. stay with us. we have much more coming up about our most vulnerable children.

welcome back to "viewpoint". i'm erika gonzalez. joining me this morning three ceos of local nonprofits that really have their finger on the pulse in this community with family and children that need help getting back to school and starting off successful. i want to thank you for joining us again. donna fortier with mobile home, wendy gradison with, ceo of trs and piper phillips, phillips programs for children and families. in this area there is something pretty different. i thought what is this? there's an actual bus in loudoun county that really helps service the needs of children that are homeless or at risk youth. donna tell me about this.

>> it stemmed from a need, a transportation difficulty that many of our families have. so mobile hope services are for children and young adults 24 years of age and younger who struggle with every day food, clothes, hygiene, school supplies, prom dresses. while we have a location in leesburg that allow kids and their families to come in and shop a lot of families were struggling with transportation. so we take our mobile unit, our bus out every wednesday night to different locations throughout loudoun county and we serve anywhere 50 to 90 kids and we do the same thing that we do at our facility in leesburg but on the bus, clothes, hygiene, school supplies. we partner with businesses that will come in and cook hot meals or nutritious meals and it's very humbling to see the families that come to us and the kids. >> 50 to 90 kids every time you do this. on a monthly basis you are seeing the faces of at least 500 kids?

>> on average. 300 to 500 kids who come to mobile help. >> what does that mean precariously housed. what does that mean? >> we work under the mckinney definition of homelessness they don't go the same stable home environment every night. it could change. they might be doubled up with five or six other families. they might be couch surfing, living in their cars, shelters. >> how do they find out about mobile hope? >> word-of-mouth. and we have great relationships with a lot of the other nonprofits in loudoun so we get a lot of referrals from social services, from the faith community particularly the school. the school system identifies kids who are at risk and sends them over no bill hope. >> they are getting everything from backpacks now that we're starting school again, backpack, pencils, clothing that they wear. >> shoes. everything. perfume. makeup.

>> because even those things, even the deodorant, perfume is important, is it not, to help build up a child's self-esteem as they transition into back to school. >> absolutely. i mean it's vital. >> yeah. >> wendy, tell me about the service that you all provide with trying to really meet a need in this community? >> absolutely. well we've been around is in 1963 providing services and support to folks recovering from mental illness, substance abuse disorders, asperger disorders. we have a line for anybody. so people can have a routine in their community. going back to school, going back to work. >> piper your organization is not just dealing with the kids but you're seeing families as a whole. you're seeing the parents as a whole and that really has to be, you know, strike a chord with your heart when you're listening

to moms and dads that are saying look i'm struggling and i don't know how i can get my kid into school with what they need. >> right. right. well, we have several different programs. we have two programs. special education, and a day program. they serve the entire metropolitan area. we have a fairly robust education for employment program in our high schools along with program called building futures where the students are building a house in annandale and doing very many major repairs and renovation. we have partnered with mobile hope with some of our students who have had precarious living situations out there. and then we have another program called family partners where we provide intensive home based services with the idea being that the family needs some kind of support to keep that family intact. so we assess the family, build

on their strength, help them create the resiliency to be able to function more comfortably. >> piper phillips thank you so much very much. we'll be back in a minute. i want to touch on the subject when we return about parents and children with special needs or challenges as they go back-to-back to school. we'll see you in just a minute.

>> good morning and thanks again for joining us on "viewpoint". i'm erika gonzalez. we're talking about going back to school make being sure all of our kids but specifically our children that really need the most protection and provision off to a great school year. but there are parents and children that really face extra hurdles when they go back to school because they may be facing some type of challenges or hurdles, children with special needs.

piper, tell me a little bit about your work in this area, and how their needs differ from anybody else's? this is an extra stressful time really for those families. >> right. well the children that we serve have social and emotional behavioral disabilities that are impacting their being successful in other school settings so they are coming to us and we're work with them in a variety of different ways, counselors and different staff that support them and support the families as well. so, for example, you may have a student who is so anxious about coming to school that he will not ride the bus. that puts the extra pressure on the family to get that student to school, which may impact getting to work on time. >> right. >> you know, a lot of stressors there. and then when they get to school they may have difficulty getting in and so we have to work very, very closely with that student and with that family in terms of breaking that down into very

small steps. it may take days, it may take a couple of weeks. we had one who was not getting on the bus, dad was bringing him in, then he wouldn't come in the building, then we got him in the lobby. >> that's all from an it? >> that's all from anxiety, yes. yes. and then staff created some jobs for this young student to do to get him engaged and into the building and involved, so it was all very positive but it took some period of time and a team effort be able to figure out what was going network with this student and allow him to get into the classroom and work on various things that he needed to work on. cad mix. i want to stress the social and emotional skills that all of the kids happen we're talking about need so much. there was just a study from the national center for learning disabilities that from youth

them sales what's the most important skills it's the social emotional skills and the emotional support. one in five children have some type of mental health disorder in any given year. the reality is that there are many children that need a lot of different kinds of support. the families, the parents and families need that as well, and they need to give themselves a break as well as they navigate through a difficult time. and the beginning of the school year can be more stressful because of the anticipation of things being different. >> wendy, let me ask you about this. when she talked about how children relate and kind of like social norms for them, nowadays texting is becoming increasingly popular and for a lot of our kids it's just the way they communicate. you know, they much rather send

you a text than they would a phone call and you're nonprofit really has something very creative here in how to address a need with teens that really need extra help that may not be able to see a counselor, call a counselor but they can text. >> exactly. we know any of us that have teens in our lives they don't want to use the phone, they don't want to use mail. they want to text. teenagers text an average of 50 to 60 times a day. we created a year ago a text connect so that young people no matter where they are, no matter what they are involved with, if they need additional support around any issue they can text us and find a very helpful texter at the end of the line to help them navigate, empower them to develop healthy solutions. >> who is on the other line?

>> we have a wonderful group of highly trained volunteers at our peer crisis link call-in tech center of and staff who are specifically trained network with folks who are dealing with these kinds of problems. we started the text line about a year ago and since then we've had 6,000 conversations and over a quarter of a million texts. >> you're kidding. from this area? >> from this area. northern virginia, d.c. area. >> wow. >> we offer this in concert with the fairfax public schools and community mental health center in northern virginia. >> so there's a need here and this service being provided children, teens are taking advantage of it. >> absolutely. they tell us it's incredibly helpful to them. >> all right. wendy thank you so much. we'll be back with more "viewpoint" after this. do you like the passaaadd?

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>> welcome back to "viewpoint". i'm erika gonzalez. we're talking about going back to school and talking about our students particularly the ones most vulnerable off to a great and successful start. our panel, thank you so much for joining us. you all run these incredibly successful nonprofit organization but before that you are moms. so i want to pick your brains as moms about the tips that you would give. you've had your run at it. you had your kids. what's worked. what are some of the biggest suggestions you have to help get people back to school, transition well, transition as seamlessly as possible? >> well, there are quite a few. i think one of the more important ones is that your kids

are getting a good night's sleep. >> oh, bedtime. >> if you have the opportunity before school starts to begin to make bedtime a little bit earlier and getting up in the morning a little bit earlier and starting to move towards that school schedule that's going to be really helpful. >> a lot of parents will say i just want them to maximize on the summer and let them enjoy the last weeks that they have. you know, is it really doing a service to them sore it a disservice and just litting them ease back every night 15 minutes earlier and 15 minutes before that and 15 minute before that. >> if they are going to bed at midnight and have to get up at 6:30 and they don't start easing back they are starting off at a disadvantage because they've not had a good night's sleep. being consistent is key to so many kids being successful with that. another one that i particularly like is one we call a text break. kids on social media all the

time. they don't want to miss out. coming home. time to do homework. and the phone is dinging. the computer the dinging. we recommend something called a text break. so you, depending on the age of the child maybe they work for ten minutes or 20 minutes or 45 minutes on their homework. all of their devices are off. but then they get a break. it's a text break. they can turn their devices back on. check their messages. check what's going on. they know they can do that. that reduces the angst about i can't function without my phone on type of thing. they are having a meltdown because they are not talking to their bff. >> what about homework. should there be a designated time? it is as soon as you get home? it is right before you go to bed? when is the happy medium.

>> it differs. it's a family choice and one that you want to have the student involved in because they know what their energy level is like. some kids get home and they need to get outside and run around. >> they need a break. >> and let it all hang out and then can come back later. and, again, it depends on their age and how long that homework assignment is going to be. >> wendy, what has worked for your kids? >> if kids have sports after school or events after school that determines. >> what about -- let's talk lastly just about kind of easing the anxiety for students and for parents, really. i think it's for parents as far as meeting the teacher, seeing the school before the first day? >> right. if there are concerns, if it's a new school or a new teacher, then call and make an appointment and stop by, visit, introduce yourself. open up the lines of

communication. understand what's the best way to have conversations with the teacher, emailing, for example. and talking about strength of your child. setting a nice tone. >> few seconds left. >> sometimes parents are the very first to observe that their child is challenged. they are having difficulty. they are anxious. and so what i would encourage parents to do is if their young child is not ready to reach out to a text line or hotline that the parent do that. the parent go ahead and text or call us. so that they can learn more about,000 help their child move forward. >> ladies thank you so much for your expertise. we appreciate your time. donna fortier with the founder of mobile home. wendy gradison ceo of prs and piper phillips ceo of phillips programs for children and families. i'm erika gonzalez, thanks so much for joining us on this "viewpoint".

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get a $1000 volkswagen reward card on select 2015 jetta models. or lease a 2015 jetta s for $139 a month after a $1000 volkswagen bonus. now at 6:00 a.m., d.c. police program all hands on deck comes to an end as does a violent weekend in the district. angie, we're keeping a close eye on the d.c. police union as they tally up a vote surrounding chief cathy lanier. what we could learn in a matter of hours. summer break winds down. we are getting you ready as a huge chunk of students get ready to head back to school tomorrow. >> "news4 today" starts now. on this sunday morning, good morning. welcome to "news4 today." i'm david culver. >> i'm angie goff. it's sunday fun day. >> it is, yeah. starting off nice out there. >> yeah.