Throughout her life, Andrea Patten has distinguished herself as a creative problem-solver. In her career as a licensed addictions counselor she developed a niche in program development helping organizations bring such innovations as bilingual programming, family treatment and networking for comprehensive client care.
I've always had a gift for seeing the common ground between issues, organizations or departments that appear, on the surface, to be very different from one another. It's easy for me to find areas of overlap that allow them to work together."
When her son was young she took a break from human services and went to work in the marketing department of her family’s business. There she discovered more similarities. "Whether it's a product, a service or a message it needs to be presented in a way that it will serve its intended audience."
A few years later, Andrea found herself again serving families with substance abuse issues. Hired to assist a child protection organization improve interventions for kids at risk due to parental substance abuse, she became part of a team that: provided home-based screening and intervention to parents and teens; developed training to enhance social workers' knowledge of addiction and addiction counselors' ability to work with family violence issues; provided leadership, training and support for a network of healthy-living substance free foster homes. She eventually became the director of an agency where she had the opportunity to improve services to people of all ages suffering the effects of family violence before leaving to pursue her passion for writing -- on a full time basis.
"Teaming with my father to write 'What Kids Need...' was a tremendous growth opportunity for me. It took me out of a familiar role and let me try to reach families in an entirely new manner. My favorite part of direct service work was always helping people to identify and connect with the well of optimism and strength inside of them. I think that this book can provide hope to any family, regardless of their circumstances."
The co-author of What Kids Need to Succeed: Four Foundations of Adult Achievement is excited about the recently-completed 180-page guide for parents, grandparents and parents-to-be. It has also been well-received by teachers, coaches and parent-educators.
What Kids Need to Succeed: Four Foundations of Adult Achievement approaches the topic of parenting from a unique and provocative perspective: "You're not raising kids, you're raising future adults."
The recent release introduces readers to the Four Foundations - values and experiences from the childhood years of highly successful adults and uses uplifting, easy-to-read, real-life stories are used to to assist readers in a number of ways. They are challenged to define 'success' (for themselves and for their families) to question some of their assumptions and to use these ideas to help raise happy, fulfilled, successful grown-ups.
The book has been endorsed by notables such as Mark Victor Hansen (Chicken Soup for the Soul, The One Minute Millionaire and Cracking the Millionaire Code), Brian Tracy (How to Raise Happy, Self-Confident Children), Dr. Margaret Raymond (Director, CREDO, Hoover Institution, Stanford University) and David Chernow (Past President and CEO, Junior Achievement Worldwide).
Want to see what they're talking about? Visit: What Kids Need To Succeed
"My work as a family advocate exposed me to a wide variety of families and problems ... I'm fascinated by the ways they choose to solve them. That's one of the reasons I like the Four Foundations so much. They serve as a way to filter and prioritize information and ideas.... I think there's something for every family here."
Andrea and her co-author father have always been interested in helping projects (and people!) develop
to their fullest potential, What Kids Need to Succeed is taking on another life. Patten is using it as the cornerstone of an innovative fundraising program to lend a hand to well-run organizations serving kids. Whether you volunteer, participate or are employed by one of these organizations make sure to check out our Innovation in Fundraising page.
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