Page 36 - Dr Pamela Peeke

By Judith A. Habert

Vivi Cortez can honestly say that she owes her life and first time in her life that anyone had paid her a compliment.
survival to the San Diego Center for Children. In particular, It was then that the music began healing her heart. Vivi has
remembered one very important lesson that she learned at
SDCC from Sundiata. “He told me to ‘Reach for Excellence,’
because anything else is just a waste of time.” Today Vivi
is a grown woman with three young daughters of her own.
It has been over 15 years since she left the center, but she
has continued to follow those wise words from Sundiata and
today she has gone through some tough times a lot stronger
thanks to SDCC and Sundiata.
36 This is just one of the many stories that have come out of
this incredible facility located on 8 acres in Kearny Mesa.
We often hear about the many “walks” and charity functions
going on in and around San Diego every weekend, but this is
one charity that is rarely mentioned yet has been responsible
for turning around the lives of so many children and fami-
lies in San Diego. Founded in 1887, SDCC is San Diego’s
oldest accredited non-profit organization. Today, SDCC has
become a leader in providing mental health services to chil-
dren and families within our community. They offer a variety
of programs for children facing behavioral, emotional, social,
and educational challenges.

SDCC programs support Individualized Education Plans
(IEPs) and re-establishes the learning process while meeting
the specific mental health needs of the children and adoles-
cents of San Diego

Aside from their main facility in Kearny Mesa, there are
satellite facilities throughout San Diego County. Other sites
include five day treatment programs serving both children
the music program which has been run for the past 40 years and adolescents, an outpatient program in two separate East
by Sundiata Kata, the dedicated music program director. County Locations, a school readiness program that serves
Before coming to SDCC Vivi was a sexually abused child children ages 0-5, a Foster Family Agency, a counseling cen-
who went from program to program always knowing how ter, one non-public school serving children and adolescents,
to “work the system” and tell the counselors whatever (she two residential treatment programs for children ages 6-13,
knew) they wanted to hear, until they let her go home and one residential treatment programs for Adolescents ages 13-
back to her world - full of fear and anger. Sundiata reached 17 located on the Kearny Mesa campus, and a wraparound
through the barriers Vivi had constructed to keep herself program to assure that a child’s return to their community is
safe. The first time Sundiata told her she had a beautiful successful and that families have the tools needed to help
singing voice Vivi broke into tears, realizing that this was the their children to succeed
Issue 2, 2009