January 21, 2026
For immediate release
Media contact: Cara Scarola Hansen
Center for Child Counseling Public Relations Counsel
cara@yourmissionmarketing.com
We Must Uphold the Systems Protecting Our Children: Invest Now, Save Later
By: Renée E. Layman, LMHC, Chief Executive Officer of Center for Child Counseling
In the face of federal funding uncertainty that has plagued our nation’s social services sector over the last year, our children’s health was recently on the line when the federal government wiped out $2 billion in addiction and mental health grants and then rolled back the decision less than 24 hours later.
As the CEO of a local nonprofit agency that operates programs underwritten by a variety of funding streams and grants, including SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration), we must not turn our backs on the support services we are providing our children: they are our nation’s future.
At Center for Child Counseling, the federal funding we receive allows us to partner with Florida State University to support children and families in Palm Beach County. We address the unmet mental/behavioral and social services needs of children, adolescents, and families who have experienced trauma.
The funded project helps build community capacity to provide trauma-informed care in child-serving systems through training and consultation for system providers, professionals, and caregivers. We are able to focus on communities in Palm Beach County where there are significant numbers of children and families facing adversity and trauma and critical gaps in resources, including trauma-informed care and treatment.
This funding is crucial to expanding our public health approach to prevent and heal the effects of adverse experiences and toxic stress on children and families in our community, while building positive childhood experiences. We are able to support children and families facing persistent challenges, including those related to economic stress, crime, housing instability, physical and/or emotional stress, lack of preventative care to address the impact of multi-generational and ongoing complex trauma, and lack of access to effective trauma treatment.
Like one in six Americans, 42% of children surveyed at one of our partner schools in Palm Beach County have four or more adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). Without intervention, these children are twice as likely to develop heart disease or cancer, roughly four times as likely to have a teen pregnancy, and 30 times as likely to contemplate suicide as their classmate with no ACEs.
We know the cost of ACEs to society. A CDC study published in 2023 associated ACEs with an annual economic burden of $14.1 trillion in the United States, and nearly $800 billion per year in Florida alone.
The federal monies we receive are crucial for advancing our understanding of mental health, disrupting generational cycles of trauma, and developing effective interventions. By combining our resources and expertise, we can foster opportunities that will drive significant improvements in mental health outcomes for all children in Palm Beach County.
We prevent the trauma our children are experiencing now from metastasizing into serious and expensive health outcomes down the road. We must uphold and continue investing in the systems helping and protecting our children. This will save them and us later.
Renée Layman is CEO of Center for Child Counseling which has been building the foundation for playful, healthful, and hopeful living for children and families in Palm Beach County since 1999. For more information on how the Center is preventing and healing the effects of adverse childhood experiences and trauma, visit centerforchildcounseling.org.
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