“Pay Attention!” is a five-night series workshop hosted by the Youth & Family Services Counseling Center. These workshops are intended for parents, teachers, relatives and caregivers who have an interest in child, teen, and adult behavior and executive functioning skills. Information on the causes of and treatments for executive functioning problems, such as ADHD and other attention-based disorders, will be presented along with family strategies for home and school success, and the ins and outs of medication treatment.

Executive functioning is the area of the brain that is responsible for regulating attention, planning, organization, self-monitoring, motivation, time management, memory and concentration, decision making and impulse control.

Parenting a child with these issues challenges the best of parenting skills. Parents and caregivers must be skilled in implementing strategies for situations that most other parents will not have to confront, but the “Pay Attention!” workshop provides great tools and resources that can help.

The next “Pay Attention!” workshop series will begin on Thursday, April 4. Classes will be held every Thursday night through May 2 from 6 p.m. – 8 p.m. at the YFS Counseling Center located at 202 E. Adams St. in Rapid City. The cost is $76 per individual or $90 for two adults. A sliding fee scale is available. Registration is required. For more information on this workshop or to register, please call the YFS Counseling Center at 342-4789.

From left to right: Alan Sewell, Exchange Club member; Larry Kennison, Exchange Club member; Gretchen Errea, Exchange Club member; Tim Christofferson, Exchange Club member; Randy Freeman, Exchange Club member; Connie Olson, YFS Development Director; Carrie Robley, YFS Girls Incorporated® Director; Mike Alley, Exchange Club member; John Gordon, YFS Director of Community Support

On February 20, several members from the Exchange Club of Rapid City presented a check to Youth & Family Services for $6,500.

During the month of the December, the Exchange Club once again hosted its annual gift wrap station which was located in the Rushmore Mall. Volunteers, YFS staff members, and members of the Exchange Club staffed the gift wrap booth during the busy holiday season, wrapping gifts in order to raise funds for YFS programs. Exchange member Alan Sewell stated, “It was a joy for our members and our customers to participate in a Christmas activity that had so much benefit. The Exchange Club has been wrapping gifts in the Rushmore Mall since 1982 and in the spirit of Christmas giving we are all happy to give back to our community.”

Connie Olson, YFS Development Director stated, “These funds will be used to provide crucial support for the children enrolled in YFS programs such as Girls Inc. and the YFS Counseling Center. We’re very thankful that the Exchange Club continues to support YFS by sponsoring this booth for us, as well as the from community members who came to have their gifts wrapped. We’re certainly looking forward to doing it again this year.”

YFS Foundation Treasurer, Bob Paulson (far left) and YFS Foundation President, Dan Warren (far right) pose with YFS Girls Incorporated® Director, Carrie Robley (center) who held the check for $34,671 to help support the YFS Girls Inc. program.

Youth & Family Services staff and supporters toast to a man who left behind a legacy of sharing one’s passions and resources with the youth of western South Dakota.

Dr. Ray E. Lemley commissioned a special trust fund in 1981 whose proceeds would annually support several YFS programs in the hope it might inspire others to follow suit. This year, YFS was presented a check for $34,671 from the Lemley Memorial Fund to help support children and families in the area.

The check presentation followed a private special luncheon, which culminated with a champagne toast to Lemley and his parents, as specified in Lemley’s will.

Lemley, an area rancher, amateur photographer, paleontologist and world traveler, stipulated the use of proceeds from his trust be restricted to photography equipment and supplies, art classes, swimming and tennis lessons for YFS Girls Incorporated^® members, library materials and other similar educational items

The YFS Counseling Center will begin the next  series of Love and Logic classes at the end of this month.

This nationally-recognized program is offered to parents who would like to learn how to better communicate with their children and build healthy, respectful relationships within their families. These courses offer the tools and techniques needed to make parenting more fun, fulfilling and less stressful.

This constructive approach to parenting is designed to enable adults to teach children to be responsible for their actions and decisions, and prepare them for life in the real world. Adults are instructed to first use empathy to convey to children that they are loved and then use logic to determine solutions to problems. Adults replace anger and empty threats with enforceable statements and hold children accountable for solving their own problems by offering them choices within limits.

This Love and Logic session will kick off on January 31, 2013 at 6 p.m. Classes will be held at the YFS Counseling Center located at 202 E. Adams Street in Rapid City. Cost  is $76 per individual, or  $95 per couple. Scholarships and sliding fee scale adjustments are available. Classes will take place every Thursday from  6 – 8 p.m.  For more information, please call 342-4789.

Black Hills Harley Davidson, sponsors of the motorcycle that will be used for the Helping With Horsepower Bike Rebuild Program, presented the bike to YFS staff on January 3, 2013. (From left to right: Shawna Jurrens, Black Hills Harley Davidson; Rachel Cole, Helping with Horsepower project facilitator from YFS; Terry Rymer, Black Hills Harley Davidson General Manager; Mary Helland, President of the YFS Board of Directors; Connie Olson, YFS Development Director.)

Thursday morning, Youth & Family Services Girls Incorporated® of Rapid City launched their newest adventure: the Helping With Horsepower^TM Bike Rebuild Program!

Helping with Horsepower™ was founded by Laura Klock, Dave Sietsema, and Erika Cobb of Klock Werks. The Helping With Horsepower™ Bike Rebuild Program is a fun and innovative, 20-week program that utilizes a damaged motorcycle as an effective tool to teach life lessons such as team work, self-confidence, problem solving and self-esteem, through hands on learning and instruction.

Numerous members from YFS Girls Inc. will be given the opportunity to learn how to repair and customize a motorcycle through this project. Girls will be working in a hands-on environment with a facilitator from YFS to come up with a concept design for the bike. They will also learn how to repair certain types of body damage, use basic tools, install parts, paint, and do general maintenance on a motorcycle.

“This program isn’t only about building a bike; it will be sending a strong message to the girls as well,” said Rachel Cole, YFS Finance Coordinator and the Helping With Horsepower^TM project facilitator. “The curriculum for this project is designed to enhance the girls’ self-esteem and give them the confidence to realize that they’re capable of accomplishing anything they set their minds to.”

Once the 20-week project has ended and the motorcycle has been repaired and customized to the girls’ specifications, it will be raffled off to benefit Girls Inc., a program of Youth & Family Services.  Girls Inc. provides its more than 1,300 members, ages 6 -17, with fun and exciting educational and recreational activities during the school year and each weekday during the summer.  Raffle tickets will be sold through the Zonta Club of the Black Hills. The winner of the customized motorcycle will be announced at the 30^th Annual Zonta Expo, which set to take place in October, 2013.

Black Hills Harley Davidson sponsored the motorcycle that will be customized by the girls, and presented the bike to YFS staff Thursday morning. “We’re just happy to be a part of this project,” stated Terry Rymer, Black Hills Harley Davidson General Manager.

Girls Inc. members will begin working on the bike in a classroom-like setting at the Hot Rod Institute toward the end of January.