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The April Buzz
Center for Child Counseling is building the foundation for playful, healthful, and hopeful living for children, families, and communities.
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Welcome to the Center for Child Counseling newsletter - The Buzz.
The Buzz is our landing place to share important organization-wide news, resources, celebrate staff members, and so much more!
So, tell me... What's the buzz?
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CFCC team,
As we step into April, we are reminded of the significance of our mission and the vital role we play in creating safer, healthier families and environments for children. April marks Child Abuse Prevention Month, a time when we renew our commitment to protecting children through prevention and nurturing positive childhood experiences.
We are not merely an organization; we are a beacon of hope, resilience, and compassion in the fight against childhood trauma. Each day, through our unwavering efforts, we strive to break the cycle of abuse, heal wounds, and empower young lives to flourish.
As we navigate the complexities of our field, let us never lose sight of the profound impact our work has on individuals, families, and communities. Every interaction, every intervention, and every moment of support holds the power to transform lives and sow the seeds of a brighter future.
This April, please join us in our communications campaign to share information and resources for families and our community. In addition, our website has an array of free resources, like on our Ways to Play and Ways to Talk pages. Building parent and caregiver capacity to promote child mental health and well-being is the best weapon in mitigating ACEs and trauma.
Thank you for your unwavering passion, compassion, and resilience. Together, we are making a difference—one child, one family, one community at a time.
Warmest regards,
Renée
P.S. I look forward to seeing you all at the upcoming all-staff meeting! We will be launching our strategic planning process, so come prepared to dream big!
As always, your feedback is important to our continual growth and organizational culture. Please use the link below to share your input.
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Child Abuse Prevention Month
April marks National Child Abuse Prevention Month, a perfect time to reflect on our commitment to prevention at Center for Child Counseling. We firmly believe that child abuse can be prevented before it ever occurs.
Our goal is to foster an informed community capable of recognizing signs of abuse and intervening effectively. Together, let's build a community that prioritizes prevention and healing for our children and families.
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Join us in wearing blue this month and sharing our CFCC resources with clients and personal contacts, spreading the message of child abuse prevention. Thank you for your dedication to advocating for prevention and supporting the healing journey of children and families. Your hard work makes a meaningful difference every single day. | |
Partnering with Esperanza Community Center
Renée, Lauren, Dominika, and Jibby recently visited with Maricela Torres, CEO of the Esperanza Community Center, one of our amazing community partners. They explored the center and engaged in wonderful discussions about our current partnership and dreams to expand services like SNAP and KidSafe.
A HUGE kudos to our Education and Prevention Services (EPS) team for the groups and support provided at the center. It is making a big impact for families. We are excited to see how this partnership grows as we work together to meet the needs of our community.
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Admin and Operations
Last month we were part of a community partners forum was hosted by Comcast at the UB Kinsey Center. The event was successful and we had the opportunity to showcase our new office space.
A special thank you to Jineth for The Brain Architecture Game workshops at the March Admin team meeting! It was fun and informative! Maria brought her Stanley in case she got thirsty - not sure if it's big enough!
Herdis, Lauren, and Elizabeth stopped by The Breakers to visit our booth at their Annual Servant Leadership Day collection drive. We are deeply grateful to Paul Leone and The Breakers for supporting our work!
We are excited to share that we have four new hires last month. Currently, we are reviewing potential candidates for the Intake Mental Health Specialist position. Our goal is to have that position filled by April.
The All-Staff Meeting is coming up! We will be meeting on Thursday April 11th from 8:30am - 10:30am at Opportunity Early Childhood Education and Family Center in West Palm Beach. If you see them please thank Ali and her team for being so generous in sharing their space with us.
Friendly Reminder: all-staff meetings are mandatory. This is your opportunity to meet everyone, hear CFCC updates from leadership, and build our CFCC team.
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Communications and Marketing
April kicks off Child Abuse Prevention Month, and with Mental Health Awareness Month right around the corner, there's never been a better time to engage with our Center for Child Counseling on social media! Follow us at @childcounselpbc and @kidsafepbc to stay up-to-date with the resources we'll be sharing all month long.
Remember, education is only impactful when it reaches those who need it most. Join us in spreading the word and promoting a safer community simply by sharing our posts.
Also, please remember to submit your baby photos for a fun activity planned for our upcoming all-staff meeting! We kindly request that each staff member submits their photo by Thursday, April 4th.
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Institute For Clinical Training
We are excited to announce that we will be hosting a workshop by Paris Good-Year Brown in the fall! Thank you Dominika for making this happen!
Paris Goodyear-Brown, LCSW, RPT-S, is the creator of the TraumaPlay™ model, the founder and Clinical Director of Nurture House, and the Executive Director of the TraumaPlay™ Institute. She is an internationally renowned speaker, a prolific author and a master clinician. While she has spent the past 25 years specializing in treating trauma (sexual abuse, physical abuse, maltreatment and neglect) and attachment disturbances, as well as anxiety disorders, she often provides help for angry, dysregulated, and depressed children and teens.
Registration coming soon!
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Education and Prevention Services
The EPS team has been busy providing SNAP Clinical groups, Stay KidSafe, and many other parenting groups and workshops at Opportunity, Boys and Girls Clubs of Palm Beach County, Holy Ground, and the School District of Palm Beach County.
The team facilitated PACEs training in Spanish for Esperanza Community Center and Holy Ground. and Trauma-Informed Care (TIC) workshops for Hanley Foundation. Tghe team went on the road to provide TIC training at the Baker Center in Charlotte County. Andrea and Kayla provided classroom assistance and mentoring to their staff as part of our long-term partnership and continuation of the trainings they received from us.
Other EPS happenings...
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Cherie attended the Summer Camps conference to share information nationally about our Camp Safe program. Registrations are flying in!
- Dominika was interviewed by WPTV to talk about safety in summer camps. We will be working with the Youth Services Palm Beach County to make sure local organizations have the opportunity to engage in CampSafe.
- EPS went to the Grassy Waters Preserve for team supervision to practice a little self-care!
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Intake
Employee Experience: Intake had the opportunity to meet with the Pediatric Integration (PI) Director, Mackenzie, to learn more on how the screening tools, such as CFARs, play a big role during our centralized process for the PI team. A BIG thank you to Mackenzie for the extra support provided to our Front Desk Coordinators!
Community Awareness: Referrals are coming in hot from Palm Beach County Schools, Palm Beach Pediatrics, and we've starting seeing some from our new partner site, Hispanic Human Resources Council! We have a new agreement to provide observations at the child development center, and look forward to expanding the partnership to include more CFCC services and supports.
Operational Experience: Our Front Desk Coordinators, Jayne and Dee, have successfully set caregivers up with Mental Health Consultation, an early intervention (or level two) support within our Public Health Approach. WebAuthor data shows that we currently have over 100 caregivers receiving Level 2 Mental Health Consultation! This was made possible due to Intake collaborating with EPS Mental Health Specialist and all if our therapists! THANK YOU!
WebAuthor Update: Our Fighting ACEs screening tool has some new questions added recently. This screening tool will now be able to help us identify if a warm-handoff to other programs, such as Child First or a partner agency for care coordination, would be appropriate for the family due to presenting concerns.
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Child and Family Center
Employee Experience: The Child and Family Center (CFC) team was able to connect in person for Group supervision last month. This does not happen often as most of the team is co-located at different school - it was very exciting for them to see everyone together! They had the opportunity to discuss cases, talk about self-care, and plan for months ahead.
A majority of the team has signed up to complete a 10hr online training on Conscious Discipline. A shout out to Clarissa for providing this opportunity for CFCC.
The team is excited to start the spring session of Art Club. Nitza is our new facilitator and is looking forward to starting this group the second week of April!
Community Awareness: Jineth will be attending a supervisor meeting at the Fulton-Holland Educational Services Center in West Palm Beach this month. The administrative team from the co-located initiative and supervisors from other community agencies will be there to discuss services at school and how to continue supporting them in schools. This is agreat opportunity to connect with others and build relationships.
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Childcare and Community Social Emotional Wellness
The CCSEW team met at the Lake Worth office for an in-person group supervision and played a team building game to get to know each other better. It was a great opportunity to be together in person to discuss cases, laugh, and strengthen relationships! #TeamConnection
The team has been busy at schools and childcare centers with individual clients, groups, and working closely with teachers. They completed post-observations at CFCC's newest partner site, Hispanic Human Resources Council, and PEPPI HeadStart in Belle Glade.
The CCSEW team is working on creating psychoeducational groups at Achievement Center and Fuller Center for the remainder of the school year, to support children with emotional development, social skills, and positive decision making.
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Childhood Trauma Response
The CTR team continues to facilitate weekly support group for kinship caregivers through Friends of Foster Children. The weekly turnout is very strong, and the caregivers continue to lean on one another for support.
Overall, the team had four successful discharges in March due to clients completing treatment plan goals and making significant progress. Each client saw a decrease of at least 16 points in their CFARS scores. That's HUGE! Way to go, team!
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Pediatric Integration and Care Coordination
Client Experience: PI is wrapping up a Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) skills group for teen
girls. The team continues to provide individual and family therapy, care coordination services, and staff cases with Palm Beach Pediatrics providers to support their ability to effectively treat their patients using a trauma-informed approach.
Community Awareness: The March on-site Trauma-Informed Care training facilitated by PI's Director, Mackenzie, focused on de-escalation techniques to support their staff's ability to navigate a wide range of challenges ranging from anxiety surrounding vaccinations, to upset parents and caregivers.
Employee Experience: Allison, PI's Care Coordinator, attended a Shared Housing training this month hosted by the Homeless and Housing Alliance of Palm Beach County. Allison and PI's Student Intern, Abigail, attended a Trauma-Informed Care training at the Childrens Services Council.
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Maternal and Early Childhood | |
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Infant Mental Health
The IMH team celebrated Christine's birthday while welcoming their new Senior Therapist Sharkeisha Morris.
Sharkeisha brings to the team a wealth of knowledge and will be providing support to the team as they start their CPP training.
Did you know? We are a proud member organization of the Florida Association for Infant Mental Health. If you are interested in learning more about FAIMH, and joining an upcoming Palm Beach & Treasure Coast Chapter meeting visit www.Faimh.org or speak with your director.
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Child First
Client Experience – The agency received a referral for a 13-year-old who needed specialized services to address the trauma she had experienced crossing the border and at the hands of a trusted family friend. After initially facing challenges, Child First was able to advocate with our funder, Children's Services Council, to secure much-needed support for this child and her family. It was a collective effort by CFCC to think creatively and support a child in need.
Child First continues to expand our team clinician support trainings that enhance the services we offer to our families. CFN delved into Defense Mechanisms that color the experiences of many caregivers we work with.
Employee Experience – Clarissa, Jessica, Tauna, and Keren traveled to Washington DC for the Psychotherapy Networker Symposium this past month, bringing back great information to share with the team. Child First South enjoyed a group outing to Aioli to celebrate March birthdays, including Nicolene and Nicole!
Child First also shared basic Conscious Discipline training with CCSEW, Clinical Services, and IMH.
Community Awareness – Child First South accepted 2 new Early Childhood Court referrals this month, re-establishing a collaborative partnership with this specialty court. The Senior Clinical Director shared her experience with Children's Service Council in a video discussing the benefits of our healthy beginning system of care to our community.
Operational Excellence – Child First North engaged in spring cleaning this month, while Child First South continues to host many programs, including twice-weekly SNAP groups. The finance team worked hard on amending the funding budget, securing additional funding to support CFS. Accreditation remains a priority for Child First as we work towards renewing it at the highest level possible.
Sustainable Growth – At their Child First Retreat last month, the team brainstormed ideas for telling our story. Stay tuned for more as we bring our ideas to fruition.
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Welcome new hires and congratulations to staff members who have been promoted! | |
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Ljubica Ciric: Senior Director of Strategic Impact
Antoinette Knight: Therapist, Child and Family Center
Sharkeisha Morris: Therapist, Infant Mental Health
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Meet Jibby
With a diverse background in public health, mental health, and psychology, Jibby brings a wealth of experience and expertise to our team. Her journey began with relief work in post-war Serbia before she found her calling in mental health. From her early days as a therapist in a Florida correctional facility to her role as VP of Child and Family Services, Jibby has always been driven by a passion for community work and social support.
Jibby said that Growing up with parents who were physicians inspired her to provide support to others, and in her personal life as an athlete she had a carried a sense of social responsibility. For Jibby, prevention is key, and she's dedicated to making a difference every day.
To practice self-care, you'll find Jibby hitting the pavement as an avid runner. A fun fact about Jibby is that she came to the United States alone at just 16 years old!
Welcome to the team, Jibby!
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We are hiring! Please share open positions with a friend or colleague!
We are currently hiring for therapist positions. To view all available positions visit the career page on our website. Interested candidates can also email: HR@centerforchildcounseling.org.
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Happy Birthday from your Center for Child Counseling team!
Amber Payne 4/1
Dominika Nolan 4/2
Antoinette Knight 4/2
Angie Lykins 4/3
Suzette Exantus 4/4
Noah Gordon 4/1o
Witmine Joseph 4/13
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EPS Team: "Well done to the entire EPS team for all of the hard work providing services/delivering our programs and trainings as well as representing our agency in other states!"
Claudia Flores-Flamm: "CFC wants to recognize Claudia Flores-Flamm. Claudia goes above and beyond for our team and the clients she works with. Claudia takes initiate by assisting in creating processes that help new hires navigate the different portals we utilized. Claudia always looks for different opportunities to participate in trainings and share her feedback through Group Supervision. Claudia utilizes her therapeutic skills to consistently advocates for her clients and the families she works with. She uses a warm hand off approach when making referrals and staffing cases. "
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Your story, no matter how big or how small you may think it is, is worth sharing! Share your story with us by filling out the survey below. | |
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Thank you for reading! We are so grateful for you all and the amazing work you do every day to build healthier families and communities. Because of you, children have the opportunity to heal and thrive.
YOU are valued. Until next month!
From, your "make it pretty" committee: Hannah and Renée.
P.S. Have news, stories, or photos to share? Send us a quick note in Teams and we will add it to the next Buzz!
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