Last fall, ChildSavers launched a new partnership with Colonial Heights City Public Schools and the Virginia Health Care Foundation (VHCF), offering access to trauma-informed mental health services for children at Lakeview Elementary School.
VHCF awarded ChildSavers a two-year $264,195 grant to support the Nurture Now: Helping Kids Shine initiative, including the hiring of a full-time therapist and a portion of a site supervisor for the first year of the new school-based therapy program at Lakeview Elementary School.
Through this new school-based mental health program, ChildSavers anticipates serving at least 30 children through over 700 therapy sessions annually.
Our clinician, Brooks Woody, based at Lakeview Elementary, said, “The Lakeview team and staff have been incredibly welcoming and open to our services. The parents and families have been really engaged and supportive of the work we do with LES students and have been a joy to work with. While I see kids from all different backgrounds that have different presenting concerns, I’ve found it integral to provide information to caregivers about why these services are so important and how sometimes the ‘work’ of therapy may take longer than they anticipate. I look forward to continuing to collaborate with LES and CHPS families and students.”
School-based therapy increases access to trauma-informed and resilience building mental health services by embedding clinicians in schools on a full-time basis. Teachers, staff, and parents can refer students to the service.
In a press release issued last fall, Colonial Heights Superintendent, Mrs. Haidee Ratliff said, “Colonial Heights Public Schools is both grateful and excited to join with ChildSavers through the Nurture Now Grant in providing much needed mental health services for its students. Not only are these services supportive for the students themselves, the school division is benefitting from the Child Savers on site staff as well as the valuable professional development that they are sharing. Colonial Heights is continually seeking ways to serve our students and support them with the best level of care possible to increase student capacity to access educational services. The mental health supports provided through Child Savers in the form of counseling and trauma informed care allow our students to learn how to regulate their own behaviors which ultimately result in positive learning outcomes.”
ChildSavers began its school-based services program in 2018 in partnership with the Richmond City Public Schools through a grant from the Robins Foundation. In 2022 ChildSavers began serving Hopewell City Public Schools, and with the new expansion into Colonial Heights, the nonprofit now provides mental health services in 22 preschool, elementary, middle, and high schools in the Central Virginia region. To learn more about our school-based programs, click here!
One of our school-based therapy rooms at a public school.
