• Mental Health and Substance Abuse Counseling

• Family Violence Counseling

• Child Sexual Abuse Counseling

• Safe Harbor

• Youth Violence Prevention Programs

• PATTS, Peaceful Alternatives to Tough Situations

• SAVY

• STAR GROUP

• VISIONPOINT

This service component includes individual, couple, marital, family, and group therapy to treat a wide range of issues.  Some of these issues are: depression, anxiety, thoughts of suicide, alcohol and drug abuse, marital problems, coping with grief, issues of trauma, adjustment difficulties, and more.

This service also specializes in child therapy.  Many of the therapists are trained in play therapy.  Some of the issues the staff helps families with are: school-related problems, children who witnessed a violent/traumatic event, grief, divorce, adoption, anger control (pre-schools, children, teens), ADD/ADHD, attachment/bonding, and defiance.

Bullying is defined as one person repeatedly using his or her power to hurt another person; this may take the form of teasing, threats, ostracization, or physical assaults.  Victimized children rarely seek adult intervention.

For that reason, we have created SAVY, Students against Violent Youth, which empowers school-age children to deal with bullies in their schools and neighborhoods.  This program was created in response to an unmet need in public schools which was discovered in the course of conducting the PATTS program, a non-traditional anger management/violence intervention program for students.

The Center's goal is to train grass roots SAVY teams within the schools who will support their peers and be consultants with school officials on bullying behavior.  The students on the teams will learn how to interact with bullies in ways that will model positive means of discouraging bullying behavior, resulting in school-wide programs to significantly reduce bullying.  Each year, additional SAVY teams will be trained; these members will then join those who were trained in previous years to become a larger presence.

The SAVY program is strength-based approach that empowers students to become the point of access for other students to report incidences of bullying and to find support.   Student surveys reveal that few students reporting bullying to adults, believing that adults will not address their concerns (Charach, Pepler & Ziegler, 1995).

According to the National Association of School Psychologists, it is estimated that 160,000 students miss school every day because of verbal or physical intimidation by their classmates.  As incidents such as the tragedy in Columbine have shown, children who are routinely victimized by bullies in school and in their neighborhoods may respond with extreme acts of violation retribution.  Schools with bully-proofing programs report dramatic decreases in truancy, vandalism, and theft, and indications that the school climate was more positive as a result (Olweus, D. "Victimization by Peers:  Antecedents and Long-term Outcomes," 1993)

This program was designed to teach basic coping skills to Elementary, Middle, and High School aged children which will reduce their acting out behaviors.  The students will learn positive coping skills for dealing with overwhelming feelings and difficult life situations.

This program is designed as a psycho-educational group for children who tend to isolate themselves and are underachievers.  They may have experienced abuse, neglect, trauma, or abandonment in their lives and need increased communication and social skills.  The goals of the group are to teach skills that will result in positive choices to help them reach their full potential.

This program is designed for groups to meet one hour a week for nine weeks.   They will be selected by school guidance counselors from children who seem to be struggling to cope with feelings around situations in which they find themselves or have volunteered to be in such a group.  Although art is used as a primary mode of presenting and processing material, an affinity for art is not required.  A facilitator from the Center for Child and Family Services conduct the groups.

Here are some thoughts from participants in our Star Group:

HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT COMMENTS "This group really helped me.  It gave me a chance to meet new people and to make friends with people I would usually not talk to or hang out with.  It  also showed me that there are other people who have problems similar to mine.  I think all students should have the opportunity to partake in a group like this."
"I got to meet other people with similar issues." "I think that this should be offered to other teens.  It has helped me to see that I don't have to take everything at once.  And that I can just be myself."
MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENT COMMENTS "I love this class and I learned a lot about self control." "Okay, this group has helped me to block out a lot of things that aren't positive." "Gets me out of class; to be more calm and gets me with different people."

VISIONPOINT supports the community's goal of building developmental assets in youth.  These assets have proven critical to insuring  youth develop into self-sufficient, healthy community-minded adults.   Here are several highlights of the program:

• Preparing Youth for Productive Futures with job skills, adult education programs, and community education and service, as well as working with them on health and fitness and the appreciation of fine arts and culture.

• A Network of Community Support of area businesses and government institutions.

For a detailed presentation of VISIONPONT, please click here