Related Posts

• Why I Give Back: Metropolitan Ministries

  

  One of PAR’s core values is to give back to the community, and our dedicated staff provide time and resources to a variety of causes. This blog is one in a series about what drew our staff members to become involved with various charities. Today’s blog focuses on David Houser’s relationship with Metropolitan Ministries. When David Houser, PAR’s director of sales, began heading up PAR’s involvement with Metropolitan Ministries several years ago, he knew this local, grassroots community nonprofit served struggling and homeless families throughout Tampa Bay. However, there is no way he ever could have expected the increase in need they would see once the pandemic hit. “Food insecurity in this country is something that shouldn’t even be an issue,” said David, who leads the PAR team in food and gift drives throughout the year. “I’ve always had an interest in feeding people, taking care of that basic need, and making sure people have that ability to thrive.” In 2019, Metropolitan Ministries served nearly 2 million meals and helped nearly 20,000 families with its support services. The organization provides food services, ...

• Why I give back: Trinity Café

  

  One of PAR’s core values is to give back to the community, and our dedicated staff provide time and resources to a variety of causes. This blog is the first in a series about what drew our staff members to become involved with various charities. Today’s blog focuses on Jim Eddy’s relationship with Trinity Café. When he was in high school, PAR Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer Jim Eddy’s mother left for good. Soon after, his father decided to leave town. He told Jim he had minutes to move out. Suddenly, Jim found himself without a home. The youngest of five children, he needed to find a way to support himself, so he walked into First Florida Bank in Fort Myers looking for work. “Gotta eat; need a job,” he told them. They walked him into the computer room—which no one in the bank wanted to learn. He didn’t know how to operate a computer, either, he told them. A woman pointed to some manuals nearby and told him, “That’s what the big books are for. You better start reading.” That was ...

• Back-to-back conferences for PAR and the SDS!

  

  It will be our busiest week of the summer as we attend two conferences, giving us more chances to meet with our Customers! First, the National Career Development Association (NCDA) Global Career Development Conference will be held June 27-29 in Houston. Then we’ll be heading to Boston for the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) Annual Conference from June 29-July 2. At both conferences, we’ll be featuring the Self-Directed Search (SDS). If you’re attending either conference, stop by the SDS booth (#101 at NCDA and #1108 at ASCA) to pick up a FREE SDS sample pack! You can also enter a raffle to win an SDS print kit. We’ll have product samples, and conference attendees will be eligible to take the SDS for free for a limited time. Stop by our booth for details, or just to say hello! One more thing—we’ll be offering special discounts on any purchases made at the SDS booth during both conferences. You’ll save 15% on your order and we’ll include free ground shipping. We hope to see you in Houston or Boston!

• Giving Back to our Community PARtners

  

  One of PAR’s core values is to give back to the community. Throughout the year, our staff members volunteer their time to benefit many charitable organizations in the Tampa Bay area. Here’s a look at some of the activities and events PAR staff have participated in recently.   PAR staff partnered with Feeding Tampa Bay to support their Mega-Pantry program in both April and July. The Mega-Pantry distributes fresh fruits and vegetables, bread, dry goods, and more in a drive-through-style event to those in our community who are experiencing food insecurity. This program is held several times per week in various locations around Tampa. PAR staff members spend an afternoon sorting food, directing traffic, and loading hundreds of cars with enough food to feed each family for a week.  PAR staff continued our yearly tradition of participating in United Way’s Week of Caring. PAR volunteers donated their entire day to helping a local family’s housing dreams come true as they helped Habitat for Humanity to build a home in one of its new neighborhoods in the Tampa area.  Throughout the spring, volunteers from ...

• Community PARtners: PAR has been busy giving back!

  

  One of PAR’s core values is to give back to the community. We participate in many special events during the year that benefit organizations in the Tampa Bay area. Here’s a look at some of the activities and events PAR staff have participated in recently.  In August, PAR CEO Kristin Greco participated in the 2022 CEO Soak to raise money for the ALS Association Florida Chapter. The event, which took place at ZooTampa, raised more than $50,000 to help raise awareness and funds to support those living with and impacted by ALS.   In September, PAR took part in our annual United Way campaign. We had 100% staff participation and exceeded our fundraising goal—raising $113,278 in staff contributions to benefit those in need in the Tampa Bay area. Visit unitedway.org to learn about United Way in your area.  In October, a group from PAR joined a sold-out crowd of animal lovers for the Humane Society of Tampa Bay’s annual gala fundraiser, Tuxes and Tails. This black-tie event raised hundreds of thousands of dollars while finding homes for adoptable dogs and cats from the ...

• Clinician’s Corner: Forensic Evaluations and the PAI

  

  Mark Ruiz, PhD, ABPP, is a licensed psychologist at the James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital and coauthor of the Personality Assessment Inventory Interpretive Report for Correctional Settings (PAI-CS). He specializes in competency to stand trial, mental state at the time of offense, violence and sexual recidivism risk assessment, and sentencing mitigation. In today’s blog, PAR Project Director Sierra Iwanicki, PhD, talks to him about the use of the Personality Assessment Inventory™ (PAI®) in forensic evaluations, how he became drawn to the field, and where he thinks forensic psychology is going in the future. How did you become involved in forensic evaluations? It happened by accident. During my undergraduate and graduate training, I had brief experiences working with juvenile and adult offenders. I took some workshops about competency and sanity evaluations through the University of South Florida. Following the workshops, some opportunities to do court-ordered evaluations opened in the county I was in and it took off from there. Why is it helpful to include a measure of personality in these evaluations? Psychological testing that can address multiple clinical issues in an objective ...