Four Key Employees Promoted to Leadership Roles
NEWS RELEASE
May 22, 2025
For immediate release
Media contact: Cara Scarola Hansen
Center for Child Counseling Public Relations Counsel
cara@yourmissionmarketing.com
Strengthened Leadership Better Positions the Center to Serve Children and Families.
Center for Child Counseling recently announced the promotion of four of its key employees to leadership roles within the Palm Beach Gardens-based nonprofit organization: Amber Payne as chief quality officer; Dominika Nolan as senior director of development and events; Hannah DeMarco as senior director, marketing and communications; and Yassaira Martell as director of early intervention services.
“In these times when our mission has never been more critical, I am filled with gratitude and pride in the extraordinary work we continue to do to create lasting impact for children and families. The strengthened leadership of these four remarkable women improves our organizational alignment and better positions our capacity to serve children and families through a trauma-informed, HOPE-centered public health approach,” stated Renée Layman, CEO of the Center.
Payne now leads the agency’s data-driven quality improvement initiatives and guides its continuous improvement efforts to ensure excellence across the organization.
Nolan helps lead strategy and execution for key initiatives—including signature events like Lead the Fight—and drives sustainability through strategic partnerships, donor engagement, education, and community awareness.
DeMarco will continue to elevate CFCC’s voice locally and nationally as they expand awareness, advocacy, and access through storytelling and strategic outreach.
Martell serves as the leader of critical early intervention programming which is at the foundation of the Center’s public health approach.
“Our vision is bold: to grow beyond Florida and become a national voice and leader for children’s mental health. With a strengthened senior leadership team and other promoted leaders, we are recommitting to our mission and the children and families we serve. We are each part of something bigger than any one of us: a movement to stop the intergenerational cycle of trauma and build a future of healing and HOPE. Our work matters!” added Layman.
For more information on Center for Child Counseling and career opportunities, 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. www.centerforchildcounseling.org Twitter: @ChildCounselPBC Facebook: @CenterforChildCounseling Instagram: @childcounselpbc
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$100K Impact 100 Grant to Transform How Mental Health Services Are Delivered to Children
NEWS RELEASE
May 2, 2024
For immediate release
Media contact: Cara Scarola Hansen
Center for Child Counseling Public Relations Counsel
cara@yourmissionmarketing.com
Center for Child Counseling Receives $100,000 Impact 100 Grant to Transform How it Delivers Children’s Mental Health Services
Impact 100 award will help expand access to mental health in southern Palm Beach County with mobile unit.
Impact 100 Palm Beach County recently awarded a $100,000 grant to Center for Child Counseling (CFCC) for expanding access to mental health in southern Palm Beach County. These funds will support the launch of a newly purchased mobile unit that will deliver services directly to vulnerable children and families: ensuring that no child’s future is determined by their zip code.
“The women of Impact 100 Palm Beach County are committed to strengthening the fabric of our community by supporting programs that address its most pressing needs. Awarding this $100,000 grant to the Center for Child Counseling reflects our deep belief in their mission and the critical importance of accessible, early-intervention mental health services for vulnerable children and families. We are proud to help advance this impactful work at a time when the need has never been greater,” stated Jeannine Morris, co-president of Impact 100 Palm Beach County.
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. In 2021, 41.5% of Palm Beach County high school students reported that they felt hopeless, and 20.7% of total high school students seriously contemplated suicide (PBC Youth Behavioral Health Survey).
“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. The agency leverages innovation, technology, and data-driven solutions in response to the escalating youth mental health crisis.
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 of a new mobile unit.
“This isn’t just a bus–it’s a moving, healing space that delivers trauma-informed care, prevention tools, and HOPE to hurting children,” stated Renée Layman, CEO of Center for Child Counseling.
The mobile unit will eliminate barriers to accessing care and transform how services are delivered in southern Palm Beach County. The initiative aims to provide an integrated approach that spans prevention, early intervention, and intensive mental health services.
Layman added, “Imagine a Palm Beach County where no child’s future is determined by their zip code. Where no family has to choose between working and getting their child the help they need…Where no child has to wait for hope and healing.”
With the assistance of the $100,000 Impact 100 grant supporting the mobile unit, CFCC will: reach families directly, removing obstacles like language and transportation; prevent crises before they begin by using data to find and help the most vulnerable; build a scalable model for Palm Beach County and beyond.
“We are most grateful to the women of Impact 100 Palm Beach County for selecting Center for Child Counseling as a grant recipient. Your gift is a catalyst for change. You are turning a mobile unit into a lifeline for promoting positive mental health for children, families, and our community,” commented Layman.
For more information on Center for Child Counseling’s programs and services, visit www.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. www.centerforchildcounseling.org Twitter: @ChildCounselPBC Facebook: @CenterforChildCounseling Instagram: @childcounselpbc
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