Meet the team
Worku Negussie (founder and Executive Director)
Holds BS in Mechanical engineering and Master of Arts in Counseling (MA, LMHCA)
Worku always had passion in the helping profession specially making a difference in the lives of the young generation.
Beside his over 22 years experience working in semiconductor industry , Worku has been actively involved in children, youth, adult and family ministries in a church setting since 2002. He also had the privilege of serving as a president of council of elders of a church with predominantly an Ethiopian-American congregation for several years. He had also experience working with high school and college students and their families with a holistic approach. Besides teaching Sunday school and organizing youth programs, he had helped students in preparing them academically for SAT /ACT college entrance exams and life planning. Based on their ability, aptitude and interest, he collaborated to find their unique pathway in college. As a result, he was fortunate enough to guide a number of students from various multicultural backgrounds and watched them flourish as young adults. Worku had been also helping diverse clients at his private mental health practice office mostly members of underserved communities.
EFFS -Leaders and Volunteers
Some of the children who Worku raised and mentored over the years are now leaders and volunteers at Empower Family Focused Services.
1. Kalkidan Worku ( Health and projects director)
BSN, university of Washington, Seattle ,currently working on her DNP (Doctor of Nurse Practitioner)
2. Lamrot Alemayehu (Black youth empowering advocate)
BA in psychology, Tulane University, New Orleans
3. Naod Aynalem (Education and social services director)
BS ,global health, University of Southern California,USC
4. Berhan Worku (college bound students mentor )
Doctor of Pharmacy, University of Washington , Seattle
Notable inspiring quotes
“I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do.”
― Edward Everett Hale
“A hundred years from now it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in, or the kind of car I drove... but the world may be different because I was important in the life of a child.”
Forest E. Witcraft TEACHER, SCHOLAR
He who gives when he is asked has waited too long. ~Sunshine Magazine
I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world. ~Mother Teresa (Agnes Gonxha Bojarhiu)
To have and not to give is often worse than to steal.
~Marie Dubsky
If you do a good job for others, you heal yourself at the same time, because a dose of joy is a spiritual cure. ~Dietrich Bonhoeffer
When we grow old, there can only be one regret — not to have given enough of ourselves.
~Eleonora Duse
Instead of counting your days, make your days count. ~Author Unknown
“A happy family is but an earlier heaven.” —George Bernard Shaw