NEWS RELEASE
June 23, 2025
For immediate release
Media contact: Cara Scarola Hansen
Center for Child Counseling Public Relations Counsel
cara@yourmissionmarketing.com
Center for Child Counseling Unveils Mobile Unit: A New Way to Deliver Hope to Kids
Center for Child Counseling (CFCC) is expanding access to mental health care for children in Palm Beach County by driving its services directly to the kids who need it most. The official launch and ribbon-cutting ceremony of a new mobile unit took place on Tuesday, June 17, 2025, at Opportunity Early Childhood Education and Family Center in West Palm Beach.
Much more than a bus, the new 25-ft mobile unit is a moving, healing space that delivers trauma-informed care, prevention tools, and hope to hurting children. It will eliminate barriers to accessing care and transform how services are delivered throughout the county: ensuring that no child’s future is determined by their zip code.
“We don’t have to wait for a child to fall apart emotionally before we do something,” is a steadfast motto of the Center for Child Counseling and a statement CEO Renée Layman emphasized during the ceremony.
The agency is leveraging innovation, technology, and data-driven solutions in response to the escalating youth mental health crisis–“building the capacity of the people who live and work with kids to promote their mental health and well-being. That’s the vision behind this,” added Layman.
The Center for Child Counseling leadership team, board members, staff members, donors, and partners were present to officially cut the ribbon of the mobile unit.
Ali Eger, executive director of Opportunity Early Childhood Center, shared the story of a three-year-old girl who experienced trauma. In her struggles, she would screech and rip everything to shreds in the classroom. With the help of the Center’s on-site therapist and play therapy, the child’s life was transformed. Today, she is in a high school honors program, has friends, and participates in theater.
“We are so thrilled about this mobile unit and how it’s going to expand the services for our children and the whole community,” stated Eger.
Center for Child Counseling has been building the foundation for playful, healthful, and hopeful living for children and families in Palm Beach County since 1999. Its services focus on preventing and healing the effects of adverse experiences and toxic stress on children, promoting resiliency and healthy family, school, and community relationships.
The current state of the world has taken a toll on everyone’s mental health, well-being, and even sense of hope for the future. Coming out of the pandemic, our community (and world) experienced a heightened youth mental health crisis. Families and communities continue to struggle with threats to their sense of safety: overwhelming grief and loss from the pandemic, economic insecurity, racism and discrimination, political unrest, war, school shootings, and policies that are a direct threat to their sense of safety.
The data is alarming: One in four children in Florida is experiencing a mental health or behavioral concern. And it is estimated that 70-80% of children in need of mental health services do not receive them.
Beginning in 2019, CFCC partnered with WebAuthor to map out a Data Dashboard to directly address the youth mental health crisis. Populated with data from more than 10,000 children the Center serves, the Data Dashboard shows exactly where they are located within the county with the various issues they are facing.
CFCC looks at data in real time and uses the information to pinpoint emerging trends in specific areas. The data also eliminates any guess work on the community needs. Presently, the dashboard highlights concerns such as behavioral issues, family conflict, and anxiety as the most common.This innovation in data is helping target the most vulnerable children, families, and communities to embed support–without first having to diagnose a child with a mental health disorder.
The geomapping of data is driving the agency’s vision to better serve kids and families in Palm Beach County with the acquisition and launch of the new mobile unit. The initiative will provide an integrated approach that spans prevention, early intervention, and intensive mental health services.
The purchase of the mobile unit was made possible by an anonymous donor and friend of Center for Child Counseling. Its operating costs are being supported by Boca West Children’s Foundation, Impact 100 Palm Beach County, Men Giving Back, and a local private foundation.
For more information on Center for Child Counseling or to refer someone for services, visit centerforchildcounseling.org.
ABOUT CENTER FOR CHILD COUNSELING:
Center for Child Counseling has been building the foundation for playful, healthful, and hopeful living for children and families in Palm Beach County since 1999. Its services focus on preventing and healing the effects of adverse experiences and toxic stress on children, promoting resiliency and healthy family, school, and community relationships.
CFCC’s office locations include: Child and Family First Center, 5205 Greenwood Avenue, West Palm Beach; Admin and Child First Office, 8895 N. Military Trail, Palm Beach Gardens; Child First Office South, 2328 10th Avenue North, Lake Worth; and U.B. Kinsey Educational and Community Center, 720 8th Street, West Palm Beach. CFCC’s services and therapists are also integrated within 35 locations throughout Palm Beach County–schools, childcare centers, and pediatric offices. The new mobile unit now helps ensure that no child’s future is determined by their zip code. www.centerforchildcounseling.org Twitter: @ChildCounselPBC Facebook: @CenterforChildCounseling Instagram: @childcounselpbc
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