$250k Grant for Delaware Boys & Girls Club advances to US Senate, would provide funding for new counselors and trauma training for staff
SEAFORD, Del.- A new 250,000-dollar grant to increase mental health counseling services for the Delaware Boys and Girls Club has been selected as one of the 15 grant applications to move forward to the US Senate for funding.
US Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester toured the Seaford Facility Thursday, highlighting the work the center does, and the need for more funding.
Currently, the center employs one social worker per county, and the grant would allow for the hiring of 3 additional positions, as well as trauma-informed care training for all staff to better handle children in crisis.
Representative Rochester said she helped to push the funding to be approved, because of how dire the mental health needs are for Delaware children.
“One out of five kids lost a parent or caregiver from covid that alone, the trauma and pain and depression, that was a lightbulb moment for me,” she said.
She tells us the measure is still not funded but hopes it passes in the Senate.
“Today we are announcing they made it through the first phase and we will have it voted on in the Senate and signed by the president,’ she said.
Youth Support Services Director For Sussex County Elysha Mason says, as the one social worker the group has for the county, she has seen kids’ mental health deteriorate throughout the pandemic and believes more funding can help kids overcome pandemic-related learning deficits.
“A lot of kids are seeing education stressors a lot of stress around learning a lot of grief and loss of their being taken care of by family members and emotional regulation they are not able to pull themselves back when they are upset and unable to refocus,” she said.
She says she currently sees 40-60 kids weekly with a combination of in-person and remote appointments. She tells us she believes the outcomes for kids can only improve with more counselors and more staff that know how to help.
“This way the kids will have more people to trust they don’t have to wait till I show up they will know they can go to anyone in the club and they can talk about worries and concerns it builds that capacity of trust and sees an improvement in grades and impact,” she said.
The boys and girls club grant director Suchi Hiraesave tells us their plan is to eventually have a counselor in every center.
