2022 Community Impact Report

Connecting Children to Safety

What is this decade teaching us so far? That connection can be our safe shelter.

After seeing first-hand how the effects of isolation, division, and detachment are altering our children’s experience of the world and their hope for a safe place in it, Center for Child Counseling has made connection and safety the center of supporting children’s mental health.

We all wish we could say it’s getting better. But the stress of the past few years is still taking a toll on our mental health, well-being, and safety. Economic insecurity, racism, discrimination, political unrest, and youth suicides are still on the rise — with war and genocide leading the nightly news. These experiences, eventheknowledgeofthem , are potentially traumatic, and without balance from positive influences, may cause long-term health consequences for our children and teens.

How can our kids feel safe and hopeful when they are also the primary targets of sex traffickers and school shootings? It’s a question we wrestle with daily in our mission to bring children to safety and healing within their homes, schools, and community.

Building hope and resilience for the future means creating a community where all children and families feel loved, safe, protected — and connected. As we continue to emerge from the pandemic, we mustactivelydeveloppositivesocialconnections,particularlyforchildren,families,andcommunities whohaveexperiencedanoverabundanceofgriefandtrauma

2022 was a watershed year for Center for Child Counseling as we combined forces with KidSafe — and forged new connections together — to be our strongest in preventing and protecting children from becoming victims of abuse and trauma.

At every opportunity we remind our donors and partners that as mental health providers we can’t build these connections, educate the public, and prevent trauma on our own. That’s why we’re so grateful to have your unwavering dedication and support, because kids are looking to all of us for connections of love, hope, and safety. Simply put, Center for Child Counseling can’t begin to do this work without you.

Thank you for your part in Safe & Secure: Connecting Children to Safety. If you find meaning as a past or new champion of this work, please visit our website today and make a gift that creates connection, protection, and prevention for our children.

With grateful hearts,

Renée Layman (President and CEO), Board, and Staff

Safe & Secure: Trauma-Informed Communities

The current snapshot of our children’s mental health is alarming.

• Before 2020, 1 in 5 children suffered a mental health concern. Today it’s 1 in 4, and 75% don’t get help. Youth anxiety, depression, and suicide rates are now over 150%.

• 20.7% of Palm Beach County high school youth seriously contemplated suicide in the past year. Over 40% are struggling with a mental health concern. And for those living in foster care, the statistics are even more alarming.

• 41.5% of high school students reported they felt sad or hopeless: the majority identify as gay, lesbian, or bisexual.

• 25.2% of middle school students had serious thoughts about committing suicide. Of these 32.5% were Asian, 25.9% Hispanic/Latino, 24.5% Black, and 23.7% White.

SOURCE: Palm Beach County Youth Risk Behavioral Health Survey

Together, We Can Change the Trajectory of the Current Trauma Crisis. As anxiety levels and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) rise among our youth, we are confronting the crisis by creating trauma-aware adults within our homes, schools, and community who recognize and respond to trauma and abuse in children. When kids grow up in a trauma-informed community, they realize life-changing benefits: ample buffering and supportive relationships, an end to generational cycles of abuse, greater racial and cultural equity, and healthier emotions and behaviors.

KNOW your role and what to do.

Become trained to understand and respond to children and families around you when they experience crisis.

GROW awareness, education, and understanding.

Promoting ACEs awareness and action empowers us to recognize and buffer trauma through safe relationships and spaces.

SHOW

kindness, patience, and connection.

If you know a child who is struggling, reassure them they are valued through a safe, positive relationship. Buffering relationships are proven to aid in resilience and healing and can be the main difference between a child who continues to suffer or one who goes on to thrive.

Referrals to Center for Child Counseling for mental health treatment more than tripled in 2022, and the need continues to grow. We are calling for community action.

Protection is Prevention

We stress these words to remind us of the simple, obvious solution to the problem: prevention ends child abuse and trauma. But the terrible truth is that prevention strategy doesn’t get funded because it’s not as compelling as a child standing before us in desperate need of help.

We don’t have to wait for children to fall apart before we do something. For years Center for Child Counseling has put this belief into action. In teaching safety and protection we actually create a state of prevention. These concepts highly motivate the public, getting us closer to the goal.

Our Next Big Step: Confronting Child Sexual Abuse

At least 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 13 boys right here at home are living in daily fear and trauma from child sexual abuse.

Center for Child Counseling has always educated and treated children and families struggling with sexual abuse as part of our healing services. But the pandemic’s perfect storm of isolation, fear, anger, and economic stress escalated sexual attacks and trafficking of our innocent, vulnerable children. National Public Radio reported a 22% increase in calls from children under 18 to sexual abuse hotlines, with 67% identifying their perpetrator as a family member and 79% quarantined with that family member.

On October 3rd, 2022, we officially merged with the KidSafe Foundation to offer KidSafe as a CFCC program to expand awareness, protection, and the prevention of child sexual abuse, trafficking, and exploitation.

Since 2009, KidSafe has taught more than 60,000 children about personal safety. Educated kids are more likely to report when they feel “uncomfortable,” thereby preventing or ending sexual abuse. The program also teaches safety skills that help children make smart choices in all areas of life as they grow into healthy young adults.

139,953 Adults Empowered to Protect

3,616 Students

Safer in 8 PBC Schools

60,000 Children Empowered to Report Abuse

And because children need educated protectors, KidSafe has taught Child Sexual Abuse and Trafficking Prevention to nearly 140,000 parents, guardians, care-givers, teachers, and child-serving professionals to keep kids safe here at home and across the nation.

13,000 Camp Kids

Safer in 54 Statewide Camps

296 Children and Their Families

Educated in 24 Spanish-Speaking Seminars

2,000 “My Body is Special and Belongs to Me!” Books Distributed in English and Spanish

The Importance of Connection

At our 2022 Lead the Fight event, keynote speaker Benjamin Perks explained the importance of connection and protection as a crucial part of our evolutionary biology:

“We depend on adults for three things — for love, for a nurturing connection, and for protection. We have a biological need to be loved … it’s there from day one.”

Anyone who has looked into the eyes of a newborn baby knows that humans seek connection. We carry this need throughout our lifetime. Connection holds a safe space for trust, protection, coping, and healing during crisis. But how do we, as adults, carve safe spaces for children while struggling to make sense of things ourselves? CFCC provides the tools to connect.

We Connect When We Interact

A Way of Being With Children: A Trauma-Informed Approach to Building Resilience

Center for Child Counseling’s groundbreaking online curriculum, manual, live workshops, and public campaigns are designed to support anyone who interacts with children and families. A Way of Being With Children represents a significant shift in our community culture, promoting everyday practices that connect to and support children’s emotional needs while helping them grow more resilient.

Connecting 11,200 Frontline Caregivers in 2022

A Way of Being curriculum, workshops, and consultation was provided for Palm Beach County teachers, daycare staff, doctors, mental health providers, and other professionals.

Connecting 450 Community Members

Since launching in May 2020, the number of parents and adults taking the online curriculum continues to grow.

We Connect When We Talk

Ways to Talk to Children: Tackling

Difficult Conversations

New free workshops, tip sheets, and videos address ongoing fears and stressors including the hardest topics to discuss with children, like self-harm and suicidal thoughts, war and violence, frequent school shootings, sexual abuse, death, grief, divorce, and loss.

Connecting to Safety and Help in 2022

Over 375 parents and caregivers took our free workshop in 2022: Identifying & Addressing Suicide, Preventing Child Sexual Abuse, In the Aftermath of a School Shooting, and Ways to Talk to Children About Grief.

Rethinking Resilience

How do we help those who have experienced ongoing adversity and trauma build resilience? First, we must shift our concept of resilience.

Resilience is often conceptualized as an individual trait, so we think it is up to an individual to fix themselves, rather than looking at systemic issues that may keep adversity and trauma firmly in place.

Just as Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) impact children and families, Adverse Community Environments with concentrated factors of poverty, violence and hunger contribute to their hardship and trauma. Systemic racism adds to the complexity.

Shifting our collective mindset to view resilience as a community trait – and putting our efforts into making communities healthy and stable – must be at the forefront of rethinking resilience.

Building Safe Spaces and Resilience Starts With the Right Question

The core of this approach is looking at how we, as a community, can address Adverse Community Experiences AND Environments to change the habits and systems that keep adversity and trauma firmly in place.

What happened to you?

When a child or adult is expressing symptoms of trauma, we can change our usual reaction of “What’s wrong with you?” to a more realistic and compassionate question: “What happened to you?” This understanding approach provides a safe space for children to share their emotions without feeling they are “bad” or a disappointment – and builds resilience by receiving support in moments of stress.

The Power of Positive Experiences

Creating opportunities for Positive Childhood Experiences (PCEs) through safe buffering relationships is the antidote to Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). Every one of us has the ability to make a life-changing difference for a child facing adversity, whether as a teacher, coach, mentor, or neighbor.

7,700 Total Adults Trained and Trauma-Informed

Connection is where resilience resides.

Safety in Numbers

NEW IN 2022: Programs and Partnerships for Protection and Prevention

Boys & Girls Clubs Becoming Trauma-Informed and ACEs-Aware

CFCC launched a training series with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Palm Beach County as part of our overall goal to support child-serving organizations in becoming trauma-informed. This series is funded through a grant from the Community Foundation of Palm Beach and Martin Counties to promote child and adolescent resilience and equity. Training began with the 33-member board of directors and expanded to the leadership team and more than 400 staff members.

The 20 Boys & Girls Clubs throughout Palm Beach County serve more than 10,000 children ages 6-18.

Group Play Therapy

CFCC’s focus on early child development and the power of play drove the development of their new training workshop using Child-Centered Group Play Therapy (CCGPT) to help young children experiencing social, emotional, behavioral, and/or relational difficulties. This intervention allows children to experience social interactions to learn, practice, and enhance new social and coping skills.

2022 IMPACT UPDATES

United Way of Palm Beach County: Our Partner in Providing PACES and Trauma-Informed Care Training

85 Schools Trained in Trauma-Informed Care (TIC)

Over 99,000 People Reached On Multichannel Media Campaigns

2,000 Parents and Caregivers Trained on PACEs (Positive and Adverse Childhood Experiences)

5,700 Professionals Trained on PACEs and TIC (attorneys, police, childcare, justice, and educators)

98% of Trained Parents and Caregivers Gain Strategies to Promote Child Wellness and Resilience

3,950 Children and Families Supported with Care Coordination to Meet Basic Needs

660 Children at Palm Beach Pediatrics Screened and Supported for Mental Health

90 Kids and Families in SNAP® (Stop Now and Plan) Diversion Program for Kids Ages 6-11

5,200 People are Smarter, Stronger Worldwide Since 2020 with WeLearnPlay

150 Clinical Internships Since 2013 Growing Generations of Mental Health Pros to Meet Demand

Gennifer’s Journey

From coping with trauma to a new life at college.

I came to get help at Center for Child Counseling when I was 14 years old. I had recently come across the border to escape horrible abuse in my home. I was beaten and abused by both of my parents and became pregnant by my own father who raped me.

I worked very hard in therapy for the next few years to get through all the pain of my past — testifying against my father, coping with an abortion, living in foster care, and grieving from all the tremendous loss in my life.

I’m 18 now. After my last therapy session, I hugged my therapist with all my strength, then walked out as a first-generation college student with a full tuition scholarship.

I believe in family again. I believe in love again. And I found it at Center for Child Counseling.

“I was no longer alone in my grief, anger and despair. I had a connection to real hope. With my therapist, I felt safe – she was always there for me, always helping me. I could not have achieved my new life without the support I was given. I know I never have to be alone in my hurt again.”

Building Bonds, Trust, and Resilience

ArtClub

In January 2022, Center for Child Counseling partnered with Lighthouse ArtCenter to offer weekly group art therapy activities for tweens and teens to support their mental health, peer relationships, and overall well-being. The purpose of the program is to increase feelings of community and connectedness, build resilience and coping skills, and decrease feelings associated with anxiety, depression, loneliness, and/or stress.

CEO Renée Layman on choosing to begin with LGBTQ+ teens.

The group focuses on exploring and promoting LGBTQ+ well-being while engaging in art using mixed media. Each weekly session provides therapeutic art activities, ranging from painting to pottery, facilitated by both a Center for Child Counseling mental health therapist and a Lighthouse ArtCenter art instructor. At the end of each group cohort, participants receive their own Art and Mindfulness Kit to promote continued use of the skills and techniques learned during the group sessions.

Parenting Support Groups

With a continued focus to provide knowledge and tools to make families safer and stronger, CFCC created a trusted space for parents and caregivers to freely share their experiences, challenges, and strengths in a confidential group setting.

In these encouraging sessions, parents learn about child development and are taught techniques such as reflective listening, encouragement, limit setting, and choices to manage children’s emotions and behaviors. The importance of attitude and acceptance is stressed in strengthening the parent-child relationship.

The Giving Tree

CFCC staff often see a relentless source of continuing trauma: extreme financial stress. Children and their parents accessing our therapy and support programs often need basic supplies such as clothing, shoes, hygiene products, financial assistance, and more. We are so grateful for our new partner The Giving Tree, which provides families with the dignity of being clothed and cared for while offering economic assistance to help bring families into a place of safety and stability as they heal together.

There is a need for every teenager, regardless of sexual orientation and identification, to feel support and acceptance by both peers and adults, and there’s a critical gap in these services in the northern county.

Noteworthy in 2022

Previous generations dramatically reduced hunger, disease and war as the science and resources became available. In doing so they uplifted humanity. We are the generation that can end abuse and neglect as an accelerator for health, wellbeing, prosperity and peace.

Benjamin Perks

270 Attend International Lead the Fight 2022

The February 2022 event was moderated by Ashley Glass of CBS12 News, with the keynote address delivered by Benjamin Perks, Head of Campaigns and Advocacy at UNICEF. A book reading and conversation of “Rohan Bullkin and the Shadows: A Story about ACEs and Hope” followed with author Juleus Ghunta.

In Q&A, Mr. Ghunta and Mr. Perks reflected upon personal ACEs, explored the importance of giving children with trauma a voice, and provided ways that community leaders can help build resilient children and communities. For a powerful example of this in action, hear Juleus Ghunta talk about his life and experiences as a survivor of about 18 adverse childhood experiences. The event replay is available online on our YouTube channel, @CenterforChildCounseling.

The 2022 Lead the Fight: Giving Children with Trauma a Voice series had over 270 participants, representing 11 countries and 25 states from fields in mental health, higher education, medical/health services, community services, nonprofit agencies, government, law, churches/ministries, foster parents, and advocates.

Lead the Fight 2022 was supported by Quantum Foundation, the Children’s Services Council of Palm Beach County, the Florida Association for Infant Mental Health, Keiser University, First Republic Bank, Ward Damon, Lesser, Lesser, Landy, & Smith, GL Homes, and other partners and organizations in Palm Beach County.

92 Attend Fall Clinical Series with Jon Sperry, Ph.D.

Last fall we were fortunate to have Dr. Jon Sperry lead four live, online workshops provided on topics of Trauma-Informed Case conceptualization, Motivational Interviewing for Practitioners, CBT with Children and Youth, and Self-Care for Practitioners.

Dr. Jon Sperry is an Associate Professor in the Clinical Mental Health Counseling program at Lynn University, a staff therapist at the Counseling and Psychological Services at Florida Atlantic University, current coeditor of the Journal of Individual Psychology (JIP), co-author of six psychotherapy textbooks, and has given lectures in 22 different countries.

Center for Child Counseling Recognized by National News Source Education Week

We are grateful to Education Week for the national recognition of our work, as captured in two videos highlighting Play Therapy as part of our approach to help children deal after trauma. Watch on our YouTube channel, @CenterforChildCounseling.

Donor Dispatch, a Special Newsletter for Center for Child Counseling Donors, Launches

Individual donors and funding partners now receive a special letter in their email inboxes highlighting positive impact and opportunities to engage deeper in the work, with stories presented under Initiatives, Impact, and Inspiration.

STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES

For end of year September 30, 2022 Meet our generous funding partners at centerforchildcounseling.org: About Us/Partners and Awards.

Help Us Keep Children Safe & Secure.

If you’re ready to partner with us to build resilient, trauma-informed communities, visit centerforchildcounseling.org to protect children and prevent trauma with your financial gift.