NEWS RELEASE
August 7, 2024
For immediate release
Media contact: Cara Scarola Hansen
Center for Child Counseling Public Relations Counsel
cara@yourmissionmarketing.com
Center for Child Counseling Partners with FSU and Receives First Federal Grant to Support Children & Families in PBC
Building Resilience and Accessibility for Vulnerable Populations Ensuring Equity
Local nonprofit Center for Child Counseling (CFCC) in partnership with Florida State University secured its first-ever federal grant through SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration). The $576,416 award will be used to address the unmet mental/behavioral and social services needs of underserved and underrepresented children, adolescents, and families who have experienced trauma.
The funded project, Building Resilience and Accessibility for Vulnerable Populations Ensuring Equity (BRAVE), will build community capacity to provide trauma-informed care in child-serving systems through training and consultation for system providers, professionals, and caregivers. BRAVE focuses on under-served and under-resourced communities in Palm Beach County–Riviera Beach, Lake Worth, West Palm Beach, and Pahokee–where there are significant numbers of children and families (including immigrants, refugees, and asylees) facing adversity and trauma and critical gaps in resources, including trauma-informed care and treatment.
“This is a significant milestone and will enable us to expand our public health approach to preventing and healing the effects of adverse experiences and toxic stress on children and families in our community, while building positive childhood experiences,” said Renée Layman, CEO of Center of Child Counseling.
The funding will support children and families who may face persistent challenges and disparities related to poverty or economic stress, high crime rate, 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.
The project will deliver trauma treatment services for 350 children and adolescents, care coordination services for 350 families, caregiver support groups and workshops for 700 parents and caregivers, and trauma-informed training for 7,466 professionals and paraprofessionals throughout the five-year lifetime of the project.
Project BRAVE includes a partnership with Florida State University for program evaluation and improvement and development of infrastructure to meet the needs of the community.
“This federal grant and the partnership between FSU and the Center of Population Sciences for Health Equity are crucial for advancing our understanding of mental health disparities and developing effective interventions. By combining our resources and expertise, we can foster opportunities that will drive significant improvements in mental health outcomes in Palm Beach County,” stated Dr. Eugenia Millender, co-founder and co-director for the FSU Center for Population Sciences for Health Equity and associate professor at the FSU College of Nursing.
Throughout this project, CFCC will build on collaboration with existing community and systems-level partners, including Empower Healthcare primary care medical clinic in Pahokee, Urban Youth Impact afterschool literacy and leadership program in Riviera Beach, For the Children youth afterschool programming in Lake Worth. On a national level, CFCC will collaborate with Child First’s Center for Prevention and Early Trauma Treatment, National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) Category II Center to develop, advance, or adapt interventions to improve engagement and outcomes for traumatized youth, including culturally and linguistically appropriate services in the project communities.
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