“This is a reminder that our Annual Friendships Dinner is six months away. Please see the information below.”

SAVE THE DATE!

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2010

6TH Annual

Friendship Awards Dinner

6PM SOCIAL & 7PM DINNER

Dinner Location:

Woodland Hills Country Club

Honorees:

Rich Golisch, Board President

El Centro de Amistad

Humanitarian Award

Bruce Ackerman, President and CEO

Economic Alliance of San Fernando Valley

Partners in Youth Award

Beverly J. Gilmore, President and CEO

West Hills Hospital and Medical Center

Corporate Vision Award

El Centro de Amistad was featured in a Daily News article last week. Please use the hyperlink below to see the full article.
http://www.dailynews.com/ci_15058732?IADID=Search-www.dailynews.com-www.dail

On Thursday, April 29, 2010 a team of California State University (CSUN) MBA students conducted a detailed and compelling presentation for their Field Study Graduate Project that focused on creating an internal and external analysis for El Centro de Amistad (ECDA).  In attendance at this presentation were CSUN professors as well as El Centro de Amistad board members and executive staff.
The project addressed the Agency’s history, mission and values and corporate and competitive strategies.  In addition the project highlighted areas of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, consistencies and inconsistencies, critical issues, recommendations, implementation strategies, plans and the future outlook for the Agency.
ECDA would like to thank CSUN, and the following MBA students who dedicated their time and efforts to the superb project:  Crystal Chiu, Nashima Hunter, Aurelie Lao, Nikolay Nikolov and Eddy Waty.  ECDA would also like to extend a special thank you to ECDA board member and CSUN facility Carmen Ramos Chandler, Director of News and Information, for connecting the Agency with the CSUN MBA Program.

In December of 2009, El Centro de Amistad hosted their Annual Holiday Board Dinner.  The Dinner was an opportunity for the Board to get together, relax and enjoy good food!  El Centro de Amistad wishes to thank the Board for their endless support and humanitarianism.

El Centro de Amistad hosted an all staff event on Friday, April 2, 2010 at The California Endowment in the downtown Los Angeles area.  The event focused on team-building and appreciation.  It was the Agency’s way of getting everyone together and thanking the staff and volunteers for their dedication to the Agency and the community at large.  The staff enjoyed a fun-filled day and lunched together in the historic Placita Olvera (Olvera Street)

As mentioned earlier this month, the Girls Scout finally had their cookie sale. The proceeds for this sale will be used to purchase the girls uniforms. The girls were able to reach their cookie sale goal which was roughly 150 boxes. Thanks to all of the El Centro staff members for your support and help. This really meant a lot to the girls.

This month Carmen Tobar, our Learning Center teacher, focused on fostering and developing English language development. This was done by introducing or reviewing the subject of weather. Carmen has a handful of students who are in Spanish speaking classes. They range from as early as pre-kinder through fifth grade. She wants to help them develop their English language and to do this she implemented SDAIE (Specially- Designed Academic Instruction in English) strategies into the unit. Some of these strategies included brainstorming, comprehension checks, graphic organizers, group discussions, and round table. Carmen also made sure to use a lot of visuals so that the students could have examples of what is being taught. Carmen also had them practice their sentences orally as well as writing them. For the little ones they could represent the weather by using an illustration. Carmen also asked the younger students what the picture represented to them, and explained to them that pictures and writing represent a thought or idea.

The class also celebrated St. Patrick’s Day. Carmen read books to them and discussed how the holiday is celebrated. For example, Carmen introduced the concept of leprechauns, pot of gold, luck, and four leaf clovers. The class also decorated four leaf clovers. Most of the student wore their four green leaf clovers on St. Patrick’s Day.

The students are still working building their reading comprehension skills. This month we tried a different strategy.  Students had to draw their favorite scene from a story they read. Along with their illustration, students also wrote a caption to explain what their illustration represented. This was extremely helpful for my preschool students because, although they cannot write, they can recall events that took place in the story and illustrate it. To celebrate Valentine’s Day, the students constructed a chocolate box and decorated it to their liking. Students also made a Valentine’s card to give to their special Valentine’s using the Microsoft Publisher program. The Girl Scouts are very busy as well getting ready for their cookie sale, which will be sometime next month.

El Centro de Amistad is extremely excited to work with five MBA graduate students from California State University Northridge!  The students will develop a proposal and financial analysis regarding the optimal use and development of the Computer Literacy Learning Center.  Thus far, they have met with the agency’s management team, the board of directors, and the primary instructor of the Computer Literacy Learning Center.  We will keep you updated on their strategic planning, as the proposal reaches its closing date, May 7, 2010.