Counselor receives award at CLU

The Community Counseling Services at California Lutheran University honored Ana Alvarez with a Friends of the Community Counseling Services Award at the agency's holiday open house on Dec. 1.

Alvarez is an advocate for disenfranchised children and parents of the Conejo Valley. As the outreach director of Park Oaks and Conejo elementary schools, Alvarez helps newcomers to the school district overcome language and acculturation barriers as they adjust to a new setting.

To this end, Alvarez organizes parent education seminars, bilingual classes, parent skills training, and grassroots education programs that empower parents and help their own personal growth.

According to a social services director, "Ana not only cares about the children but the whole family. I know that she will go to a child's house get them up, dressed and in school by the hand if she has to and will go out of her way to help the parents access anything that they need, either for the education or the health of their children."

Alvarez's dedication, her sense of social justice, compassion and courage has been a model for parents and captures the spirit of social activism on which the Community Counseling Services was founded nearly 25 years ago.

The Community Counseling Services is at 3259 Pioneer Ave., Thousand Oaks. For more information, call (805) 439-3390.