CHS receives $1.6 million federal grant
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Amanda S. Long/Special to Gulf Breeze News From left: Jean Norman, Executive Director, United Way of Escambia County; Congressman Jeff Miller; Paul Rollings, Circuit One Program Supervisor for Substance Abuse and Mental Health, Florida Department of Children and Families; Cynthia Blacklaw, Executive Director of Children's Home Society of Florida; Linda Roush, Director of Community Relations, FamiliesFirst Network of Lakeview and Chris Wells, Chair-Elect, District One Community Alliance.

Children's Home Society of Florida (CHS) received a $1.6 million grant to address complex trauma in children living in foster care and to promote stability for foster, adoptive and biological families. Paid in $400,000 increments over four years, this grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration entitles CHS to become Florida's only representative to the National Child Traumatic Stress Network.

"We're proud to be able to bring funding into the region from an outside source. Rather than asking our communities for resources, we're bringing the resources in," says Dr. Clarice Brantley, CHS board member.

In collaboration with the Florida Mental Health Institute (FMHI), FamiliesFirst Network of Lakeview (FFN), the District One Community Alliance and the Foster Parent Association, CHS will develop a regional Trauma Recovery for Youth Center (TRY) serving Escambia, Okaloosa, Santa Rosa and Walton Counties. The project is designed to stabilize children and families, prevent the need for more serious mental health services, and serve as a model for effective treatment of traumatized youth in out-of-home care.

TRY responds to growing concern about the long-term effects of complex trauma in children already known to be physically or sexually abused, neglected or abandoned and, therefore, separated long-term from their families. Compounding these issues are experiences such as chronic illness, severe accidents, loss or natural disasters such as the hurricanes that ravaged the Gulf Coast in 2004 and 2005.

Working with a targeted group of 10- to 14 year olds living in out-of-home care, CHS plans to demonstrate the effectiveness of trauma-based cognitive behavior therapy. CHS will follow the youth as they transition into independent living, adoptive families or back with their biological families to determine the long-term impact of this therapeutic approach.

"The issues children and families are facing are much more complex than they used to be - the traumas are more complex," says Cynthia Blacklaw, executive director for CHS. "If we demonstrate the effectiveness of this therapeutic model, we can overlay it with our current counseling services - if it's successful, it could change the way we deliver our services."

Equally as important as helping the children enrolled in the program is the opportunity to change the system of care for children. By engaging the lead agency and providers with the training component of this project, CHS will extend the application of traumafocused interventions and theory throughout the Western Panhandle. CHS hopes to ultimately improve the mental health care of children statewide, serving as a national model for other foster care systems.