The Children’s Services Council of St. Lucie County has awarded $250,000 to Tykes & Teens, a leading provider of the highest quality, evidence-based mental health services and programs for children and adolescents for nearly 25 years. The award includes funding in the amount of $100,000 for fiscal year 2020 – 2021 with a commitment for continued funding for at least one additional year.
Under the Council’s ‘Keeping Kids Off the Streets’ priority area, Tykes & Teens will develop a mental health program that will be embedded on-site in the Council’s afterschool care providers in St. Lucie County. The trauma-informed care program approach includes Tykes & Teens providing daily counseling services at various afterschool providers for youth who are struggling and seeking a supportive service. In addition, Tykes & Teens will provide support for the afterschool care providers’ staff.
This approach will help eliminate identified obstacles such as transportation and financial means as the service will be provided at no cost. In addition, the program aims to overcome the stigma and shame often associated with seeking mental health treatment and build trust with children and youth, while proactively addressing trauma and other issues already identified by afterschool care providers.
Tykes & Teens is highly experienced in providing evidence-based prevention and counseling services in schools and on-site with community partners. They currently provide services in 26 schools in Martin and Okeechobee counties. They also provide their TRUST (Teaching Resilience and Understanding Symptoms of Trauma) program training and support for afterschool program staff in St. Lucie County to help them recognize and respond to trauma symptoms in children.
“Tykes & Teens is thrilled to further our collaboration and shared vision of the importance of mental health prevention services with the Children’s Services Council of St. Lucie County,” said Tykes & Teens’ CEO Rodney Battles. “Our evidence-based early intervention programs and counseling help kids make better life choices. Building relationships with children and working hand-in-hand with the staff at the afterschool providers is key to the success of this program. Our goal is to encourage children and provide them a comfort zone to feel open to talking about the challenges they are facing and give them the tools necessary to best confront their challenges. Reaching children and adolescents early in life and providing prevention services is critical to building healthy resilient youth and leads to long-term generational change in the community.”
“We are excited about this partnership to provide needed mental health services to children participating in our funded afterschool programs,” said Children’s Services Council of St. Lucie County Executive Director Sean Boyle. “This program is a direct result of the Children’s Services Council listening to the youth in our funded afterschool programs. Hearing their concerns, the Board acted on the need for mental health services. In a time when many families are dealing with the impact of the pandemic as well as trauma, we believe this partnership with Tykes & Teens will have a tremendous impact on children in St. Lucie County.”
About Children’s Services Council of St. Lucie County
The Children’s Services Council of St. Lucie County improves the lives of more than 50,000 children and families in our community by funding and partnering with quality agencies to ensure that every baby is a healthy baby, to stop child abuse before it happens, to keep kids off the streets, to keep them in school, and to keep them away from drugs, alcohol and other risky behaviors.
About Tykes & Teens
Tykes & Teens has been a leading mental health provider for children and adolescent evidence-based programs and services for nearly 25 years. Our passion and commitment are to empowering children and strengthening families by ensuring that all children have access to high quality counseling and mental health services, regardless of financial status. Our mission is prioritizing children’s mental health in our families, schools and communities through a wide range of prevention, education, and treatment programs and services. We also advocate for increased awareness of mental health to remove the stigma and shame often associated with seeking mental health treatment. Since our inception, we have provided affordable quality mental health services for more than 60,000 children in need across the Treasure Coast from more than 50 service locations, including outpatient offices in Palm City, Jensen Beach, Hobe Sound, Port St. Lucie, and Vero Beach, on-site services in all Martin County schools, and in schools in Okeechobee and Indian River counties, as well as collaboration with numerous community partners, in addition to virtual telehealth services. We have continued to offer our services and programs throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, including virtual telehealth care. We accept most insurance, private payments, and we are a Medicaid-approved provider. We have successfully administered a sliding fee scale for those in need when necessary for more than 20 years. As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit agency, we also provide $750,000 in unreimbursed services to the communities we serve each year.
