Debra Williams grew up in New Jersey, the daughter of loving parents who forged a stable, middle-class existence. Still, she says that as a teen she found herself leaning toward what weren't always good decisions.
A teacher stepped in to provide perspective and support.
"She became a mentor to me," Williams says.
Now Williams, a case manager for Southwest Youth and Family Services, is playing the same role with at-risk Seattle-area youngsters.
For Williams, a 50-year-old divorced mother of five grown children, it's a labor of love.
It is a career in which victories often are constructed with persistence, and small steps and forward strides are sometimes lost and have to be reclaimed.
In the end, she says, it's all worth it when an at-risk youth who might have quit school, ended up in a gang or landed in jail forges a productive life.
"This is not just a job," says Williams, who is in her second stint at Southwest, having spent five years at another agency.
"It's dealing with people. I take it personally. ... I love what I do. It's very rewarding."
A case manager's work may change a client's life. On occasion, it may also help save it.
Case in point: the young teen Williams met who had tried to kill herself. Williams was at the other agency then. The girl had health problems, was in foster care and had no contact with her biological family.
"She had a hole in her that was so big," Williams says. "So you work with her. You start building hope into it. You talk about her graduating from high school and maybe going on to college."
But the girl landed back in the hospital.
"OK," Williams says. "We have a relationship. It's personal now. Sometimes, being a case manager isn't sugar. I say: 'You stopped with the razors. Now you're in the hospital because you won't take care of yourself. That's not acceptable.' "
The girl didn't finish high school, but she did get a GED and go to beauty school. Now in her 20s, she called Williams just before Christmas to check in.
It's that kind of a call Williams hopes to get from one of the clients she is now working with at Southwest. The girl's mother, a single parent, has mental health issues.
"We worked to keep the kid safe and ended up having to have her removed from the home," Williams says.
The girl, who lived out-of-state with another relative for a time, is now back at home, in high school, but behind on credits.
"But she's bright. She's intelligent. If I have anything to do with it she's going to graduate," Williams says.
Still, Williams knows getting from here to there won't be easy. As a middle school student, the girl had friends in gangs. Williams fears the teen is on the verge of joining one.
"I'm going to make sure she sees that's not the best way to go," Williams says in a tone that seems to say she intends to be taken seriously.
Still, working with at-risk youths referred by schools, the courts or other agencies, she sees the hunger for security and belonging that a lot of at-risk youngsters have, and understands why gangs may seem appealing.
"A lot of the children I see now are children who have really lost hope," she says. "They may be living in conditions where the parents are drug-addicted or have some other problem. They may be raising themselves and taking care of younger siblings because of a parent's drug addiction. A lot of kids have given up hope.
"These are kids looking for something. Gangs offer them family, security, money."
The girl now living back with her mother is one of a handful of Williams' clients at Southwest who have her personal cell phone number.
"You're not supposed to do that," Williams says. "But this is not just a job. If something happens in the middle of the night, these are kids who might need my number. You don't do case management 9 to 5."

Published: Sunday, January 4, 2009
The new year is always a time for change.
This one is likely to bring greater challenges than ever with the financial world in chaos, employment tenuous, retirement suddenly uncertain, a new administration in the White House and a nation struggling to see its future.
Students of history know this isn't the first time we've been faced with such difficulty, and it won't be the last.
Gardens have always been vitally important during these hard times.
They fed Southerners during the Civil War, sustained Britain during the Great War, became essential during the Great Depression and were finally labeled Victory Gardens in World War II.
Now, when we're faced with the economic strain of a never-ending war and a financial meltdown with echoes of the Depression, there are compelling reasons why home gardens make sense.
Many adults tell how their own grandparents' gardens so greatly influenced their lives. In fact, this is how many of our most famous horticulturists got started with plants.
These grandparent gardens taught baby boomers about the value of plants and soil. Today, a boomer's garden can influence a new crop of grandchildren. When parents tend even a small plot in the yard, they set an everyday example that becomes a basis for teaching some valuable truths.
TRUTH: Vegetables and fruits aren't created in the supermarket. Many children have never seen a melon vine or dug a potato, so they don't have any way to link a living plant to the food they eat.
Something as simple as a giant zucchini will not only connect the dots from earth to produce, it can grow such an enormous fruit that kids will take notice.
TRUTH: Patience is required when working with nature. You can't speed a food crop, and one that takes 90 days to maturity can't be shortened no matter what you do.
In a world where everything is done in a rush and schedules are tight, the gradual process of plant to flower to fruit shows how nature follows a process. Kids learn it isn't nice or productive to try to fool her.
TRUTH: Observation is key. My mentor once advised me to "observe, observe, observe" because that's the key to learning horticulture.
Taking time to study a plant, to assess a response to its environment demonstrates many key truths. Getting to know the plant and how it looks when happy and productive precedes the ability to know when it's unhappy.
Seeing the details in anything helps us understand it at a fundamental level, and that takes time, study and comparison.
TRUTH: Care and attention result in a superior product. Regular watering, weed control, removal of insect pests and cultivation of the soil all contribute to a productive garden. You can't get around this fact without seriously threatening your crop.
If not adequately watered, that giant zucchini may not flower or its fruits may fall off the vine for lack of moisture. Without care, all the hard work to plant the garden is for nothing, because plants won't thrive. And if they're struggling, they can't produce abundant fruit, nor will the fruit be full size and well flavored.
TRUTH: Everything in nature has a cycle. Children see life in a linear nature and are always dreaming of what they'll do when they get older. The cycle of planting, harvest and dormancy of a garden shows kids that life is actually a cycle based on seasons and weather, moon and sun. It teaches kids how birth and death occurs with all living things, that it's a natural process.
And when the garden is composted at season's end, they're shown that all life returns to the earth.
As we face a new year shadowed by uncertainty, we, too, may find great comfort in growing beautiful things in the yard.
Rather than going out and spending money, we can sip cocktails or coffee while leisurely tending the garden.
While pulling weeds with youngsters, we can share what we know about these simple joys of life.
We can help them in the art of observation.
We can demonstrate how we care and nurture fragile things.
We may exhibit patience when planting seed or training a tomato to contribute to its overall success.
And someday when those kids have children of their own, they'll pass on this knowledge of plants and the importance of gardens, which extends much further than merely paying the gardener to do it for you.
Horticulturist Maureen Gilmer is the former host of "Weekend Gardening" on the DIY Network. Her blog, the MoZone, offers great ideas for cash-strapped families to live more richly on less this year. Read the blog at www.MoPlants. com/blog. E-mail her at mogilmer@ yahoo.com.

What makes this game so revolutionary is that it introduces the concept of "Living Ink," which means kids draw a requested object and when they do, that drawing comes alive through animation and it is incorporated into a story. Because it is so cool to watch their drawing come to life, kids are motivated to read the next part of the story so that they can find out what they get to draw next.
And to help new readers, all words in the game can be read aloud in a child's voice by moving the cursor over a word. When you do, the world turns red, gets bigger, and then is spoken aloud so that it is easy to follow along.
incubated in the Microsoft Advanced Strategies unit before it was spun out to be produced by the start-up Sabi Inc. Its development team included cognitive psychologists and learning specialists.
is made up of five themed playsets, which unlock as you play through the game. You start with the first playset, "Home Sweet Home," where you meet a girl Sketchy and a boy Sketchy. After you select the one you want to play with, the Sketchy will ask you to draw a house. On the screen, a translucent piece of paper appears on which you can draw.
What is amazing is that the game anticipates what shapes a child might draw, and then adds color and detail to the drawing as it brings it to life in the playset. For example, with the requested house, kids can draw a square, a circle or even a random shape, and the Sketchy will be adjusted in size to fit that house. Once kids draw a door, the Sketchy will open it and walk inside the house. When you draw the requested windows, you can observe your Sketchy moving throughout the house.
In addition to requests from your Sketchy playmate, the scene also contains stars which, when clicked, provide quests. For example, you may be asked to find the golden letter in the mailbox. When you complete enough quests (about five), a new playset will open for you to explore.
The other playsets are themed around camping, space, a haunted house and a farm. As you progress through the playsets, the reading gets more challenging, as do the quests.
What makes this game so much fun is that each time you play, it changes, because your drawings are always different. Plus kids can take in-game photos of their drawings to share with others.
The reading in the game is also well thought out. Because kids are reading for a purpose (to find out what they can draw next) and they then cross-reference the words with visual objects they have drawn, they are reading for meaning. This software provides great motivation to read.
is perfect for kids who are just starting to decode words, but it also excellent for all kids ages 4 to 8 because it is so fascinating to watch your art creations come to life.
magazine. Contact her at
.

Fifty ecstatic kids from Alameda Point Collaborative (APC) descended on Alameda Towne Center Dec. 22 and 23 to shop for a free pair of shoes at Payless Shoes. APC was among 630 nonprofits selected to participate in the 2008 Payless Gives Shoes 4 Kids Holiday Program, the first-ever national, grassroots campaign to deliver $1 million in free shoes to children of families in need. APC competed with 2,600 organizations to become a Payless ShoeSource partner and was awarded $750 in shoe gift coupons.
According to Jennifer Keibl, housing and services director at APC, "We are honored to partner with Payless ShoeSource to help meet a basic need for our community. The kids were thrilled to pick out their new shoes and everyone wore them home. We headed back with lots of happy feet. I especially want to thank the sales associate at Payless for the incredible service."
For one child, Sierra, the gift of new shoes came at just the right time. "My shoes were really worn-out. Now I have a pretty pair of pink high-tops!"
The Alameda Point Collabor-ative is a neighborhood located on 34 acres of Alameda Point, the former Alameda Naval Air Station, and operates 239 housing units. APC provides affordable housing, job training, health services and employment in a community that fosters support and interaction. APC operates a community garden, bike shop, commercial plant nursery, health center and community center.

Losing weight seems to always be the number one New Year's resolution. But we found out that resolution isn't just for adults anymore.
Many kids are starting to get in on the workout action and they even have their own gym to work out in.
My Gym Children's Fitness Center, at
is seeing more kids getting interested in working out.
Gym employees say their goal is to try and instill a sense of fun with working out so kids will keep good habits.
"It's not like a chore to workout. We make it fun so maybe they'll keep it up or maybe start to at a younger age. They'll just develop healthy habits that form a healthy lifestyle," said My Gym employee Carly Mickiewicz.
The gym is open for children as young as 6-weeks-old.
to read more about My Gym and its locations in Collier County.

SCHENECTADY — While the Internet and texting are still the preferred choice of communication for today's generation, there are still some people who love their ''hams.''
The ham radio, that is.
Or as Anthony Pazzola with the Schenectady Museum Amateur Radio Association describes it, ''an oversized CB set" or short wave radio. The group is again getting ready to participate Saturday in National Ham Radio Kids' Day, aimed at generating interest in amateur radios among school-aged children. He said they have been hosting the event for Capital Region youngsters for the past decade and a similar effort is also held in June.
"It introduces them (youngsters) to a new hobby, and often they say, 'I want to do it more often,' " said Pazzola, a trustee with the club which is housed in the basement of the Schenectady Museum & Suits-Bueche Planetarium. ''The good thing is that once you get the kids talking, they don't want to shut up.''
Amateur radio is both a hobby and a service in which participants, called hams, use assorted radio communications equipment to make contact with other amateurs for public service and recreation.
He said the event attracts dozens of youngsters who get a primer in using the ham radio before hitting the airwaves under the watchful eye of adults who provide tutelage.
In years past, youngsters have talked with peers in the Swiss Alps and San Diego about everything from school to the weather.
Rebecca Maloy who also belongs to the association, said they are hoping to start a radio club geared towards youngsters in Schenectady.
When: Jan. 3 from 1 to 5 p.m.
Where: Schenectady Museum & Suits-Bueche Planetarium, 15 Nott Terrace Heights, Schenectady

Policy efforts to bring meaningful change to Utah's faltering health care system will take time. As the Legislature lays the groundwork for comprehensive health reform in the upcoming session, improving children's health coverage should be a highest priority.
Last year, both the Legislature and the governor made a commitment to reform health care and to provide relief to the state's uninsured. Given the current economic crisis, it may be tempting to renege on that promise and leave the state's 90,000 uninsured children in the lurch. But that would be a grave mistake.
Covering kids during hard times is the right thing to do for our struggling families and for our economy. Programs like CHIP and Medicaid garner much-needed federal money for the state. Cutting rather than expanding these essential programs is a lose-lose situation for kids and Utah's financial health.
Specifically, for every one dollar the state spends on CHIP it receives $4 from the federal government, effectively discounting the cost of insuring kids through CHIP by 80 percent. This may, indeed, be one of the best bargains in health care.
This generous federal subsidy is just one reason why every major successful state health reform effort has built on the foundation of insuring all kids.
The other reasons are equally as compelling. We know that children are inexpensive to cover when compared to adults. States have a framework in place to achieve this goal, and polls show that Americans overwhelmingly support such a policy. Indeed, 76 percent of Utahns agree that reducing the number of uninsured kids in our state should be a priority for our elected officials.
Achieving the goal admirable goal of covering all kids requires three key steps. First, we must improve enrollment among children already eligible for CHIP and Medicaid - those below 200 percent of the federal poverty level. More than half of those eligible for CHIP are not enrolled in the program. Improving outreach and administrative processes could vastly enhance our penetration among these low-income children.
Second, we must expand CHIP eligibility to children in family with incomes between 200 and 300 percent of the federal poverty level. More than one quarter of uninsured children in Utah fall into this income category - a fact that underscores the need for affordable options for cash-strapped families. Opening up the Children's Health Insurance Program to these lower income families has the added benefit of driving enrollment among children already eligible for the program. Research clearly shows that expanding access has this "welcome mat" effect.
Enabling financially strained families to enroll in CHIP is only part of the solution. We know that more than half of low-income children are privately insured, and that eight out of 10 of uninsured Utahns hail from families where at least one member works full time. Helping Utah families access and keep job-based coverage must be an integral part of any coverage expansion strategy. Programs like Utah's Premium Partnership - which provides a subsidy towards job-based insurance - can provide the added financial boost that working families need to access this important source of coverage. Increasing the UPP subsidy available to low-income working parents to reflect affordability would further help families obtain and keep employer-sponsored insurance.
Through tested and effective policy approaches and minimal new investment, Utah can, in the short term, achieve the admirable goal of insuring all kids. By expanding access to public and private sources of health insurance, we can improve long-term health outcomes, ultimately lower costs and allow our kids the chance to become thriving, productive members of our communities.
Korey Capozza is a senior health policy analyst with Voices for Utah Children.

HENDERSON, Nev. — A world champion golfer lives with his family in a posh golf course community here, where a treasure of trophies and medals adorns his bedroom. Framed photographs on a nightstand capture him in midswing. An electronic putting green covers the living room floor.
Asked how many awards he had won, the champion smiled, revealing two missing front teeth.
“Um, a lot?” he said with a giggle.
Trading cards show his likeness and statistics: Brett Sodetz, world champion. Height: 3 feet 10 inches. Weight: 50 pounds.
Age: 6.
“People think we’re crazy that Brett is a world champion because he is so young,” his mother, Nancy Sodetz, said recently. “But we’re like: ‘No, it’s no joke. They really have a championship for 6-year-olds.’ ”
After two years of formal competition, the family’s move from Chicago and more than $20,000 spent in the past year to hone his play, Brett Sodetz won the youngest age group at the U.S. Kids Golf World Championship, held over three days last summer in Pinehurst, N.C. Playing nine-hole courses totaling about 1,300 yards each, he finished seven under par to defeat a boy from Texas by a stroke. Struggling to describe what it felt like to win, he paused.
“It’s cool,” he said, grabbing a mop of blond hair with his hands and opening his blue eyes wide.
Brett, who turns 7 on Thursday and is a first grader at a local private school, has won more than 40 trophies in his career. But the world championship topped them all. There, he competed against 82 players from 12 countries, many harboring the same hope: to be the next
.
Dan Van Horn, an entrepreneur from Atlanta, started U.S. Kids Golf in 1997 to market custom clubs for children. Soon, he began holding tournaments for players 12 and younger. In 2001, he formed a nonprofit to handle the events. Entry fees, ranging from $45 to about $300, depending on the event’s stature, brought in nearly $1.7 million last year, according to federal tax records.
There is little consensus in the sport about Van Horn’s approach to developing young athletes.
The United States Golf Association, the sport’s governing body in the United States, does not sanction the competitions. The youngest age group for U.S.G.A. tournaments is 12 and under. But the Professional Golfers’ Association of America, the main organization for golf instruction in the United States, helps run tournaments for Van Horn and has worked with his group to foster youth golf.
Van Horn held the first world championship in 2000, with more than 200 players from 29 states. This year, 1,300 players from 47 states and 35 countries competed, he said.
“We’re not overly obsessed with competition,” Van Horn said. “Competition is just something that motivates learning.”
Some, however, say that children like Brett Sodetz have no business competing in tournaments, let alone a world championship. They cite injury rates, psychological stress and cost as reasons to delay serious competition.
“A lot of times, the parents have the greatest intentions because they are spending a lot of time with their kids, but there is a great potential for it all to backfire,” said Dan Gould, the director of the Institute for the Study of Youth Sports at
.
Children cannot comprehend goal-setting, he said, which makes events like world championships more for the parents than for the children.
“We’ve had reports of burnout and motivational problems among kids who start really young, or they report fractured parent-child relationships,” he said. “The kids also start picking up messages like: they love me more when I win. Or we go out for ice cream only when I win.”
Steve Sodetz, 46, a real estate broker with a handicap of about 20, comes from a family of scratch golfers. He grew up loving the sport, and his hope was for Brett to fall in love with it, too. So, when Brett was 18 months old, he gave him a plastic golf club. That first swing, he said, was a thing of beauty.
Brett soon had his own real clubs, and the family eventually moved so Brett could have more time on the golf course.
His parents hired a coach to help him perfect his swing.
“We didn’t want to spend our lives saying, ‘What if?’ ” said Nancy Sodetz, a 43-year-old homemaker.
Here, in a suburb of Las Vegas, they found an ideal place to incubate their son’s talent. Brett played in his first tournament at 4 and now plays four or five times a week, from one to three or more hours each session.

WHY IT'S COOL: Looking for a rocking New Year's Eve celebration that's kid-friendly too? The Red House, Walnut Creek's very own house of rock — and jam sessions, workshops and music lessons too — is hosting the Bay Area's kid rock band, the Time Outs, for a live concert, a countdown to midnight (well, it's midnight somewhere) and activities guaranteed to make a rock star out of anyone. Air guitar contest, anyone?
WHAT KIDS LIKE: The music is catchy, the venue gratifyingly nightclubby and they'll get a rock star makeover and air guitar lessons to boot. This concert is specifically geared toward families with kids ages 2-10.
WHAT PARENTS LIKE: Unlike a lot of kiddie bands out there, the Time Outs are known for their parent-pleasing mix of indie pop, 1960s garage band and old-fashioned rock vibe. Added plus: the Red House has a bar.
AFTERWARD: Grab snacks and drinks at the Red House's Whammy Bar (psst, that's a guitar pun, as are most of the menu items) — hot dogs, beer, wine. It's an easy walk into Walnut Creek's downtown, as well.
PARKING TIPS: Free parking in the Palm Court Shopping Center, which houses the Red House, and limited street parking nearby.
OTHER NEW YEAR'S OPTIONS? Martinez hosts its annual First Night festivities (www.firstnightmartinez.org) from 3 p.m. to midnight today, complete with music, jugglers and clowns. Berkeleys' Lawrence Hall of Science (www.lhs.berkeley.edu) is holding its annual
New Year's Eve Day party, and the Chabot Space and Science Center (www.chabotspace.org) hosts its always popular New Year's Eve balloon drop (call before you go to make sure there are tickets left). Or swing by San Francisco's Asian Art Museum (www.asianart.org) either today for the Japanese bell ringing ceremony, or Saturday morning for mochi pounding and art activities.
— Jackie Burrell,

Parents aren’t always aware (or acknowledge) that their children and teens are overweight or obese. It often falls to doctors to correctly diagnose those children, and, in the best-case scenario, give them guidance for a weight-loss program.
But are physicians doing a good enough job at identifying which kids are too heavy? Maybe not, says a new study that reveals diagnoses may be falling short.
Researchers examined medical records from 60,711 patients age 2 to 18 who had at least one well-child visit between 1999 and 2007. Going by body mass index scores, 19% were considered overweight, 23% obese, and 8% (or 33% of the obese patients) severely obese.
However, among all overweight and obese patients, only 34% were diagnosed as such. Breaking it down, among the overweight children, only 10% received that diagnosis, while 54% of obese kids and 76% of severely obese kids were identified that way. Also, girls were more likely to be diagnosed than boys, while Latino and African American children were more likely than whites to be diagnosed. Results were published in the January 2009 issue of the journal
.
Researchers make the point that diagnosing and helping children before they become obese may be the best plan, but study results show that few overweight children may be identified as having a problem.
"As with any chronic disease," the study authors wrote, "early diagnosis of overweight and obesity is likely to be an important step toward reducing morbidity, mortality, and health care."