Ministries Expanding to Enhance Services or Serve More People
Wisconsin Lutheran Child & Family Services (dba Christian Family Solutions/CFS) has been healing and helping people in need through the ministry of Jesus Christ since 1965. The Youth Counseling Initiative provides trauma-informed and culturally sensitive therapy to children living in Milwaukee’s underserved neighborhoods. Children served are commonly diagnosed with disruptive behavior disorders, mood disorders, impulse-control problems, and trauma, and they exhibit behaviors that pose harm to themselves and others. CFS collaborates with 17 Milwaukee schools to make mental health treatment accessible to students and their families.
CFS is embarking on a $10 million campaign to expand and improve the STRONG Day Treatment Center, create an outdoor space, complete deferred maintenance, build a reserve fund for ongoing building maintenance and repair, and fund treatment objectives.
Primary Focus Area: Urban in-school counseling and STRONG day-treatment programs
Lutheran Affiliation: WELS
Location: W175 N11120 Stonewood Drive, Germantown, WI 53022
Website: https://christianfamilysolutions.org
Funding will support: The STRONG Day Treatment Program provides intensive mental health services in the heart of Milwaukee. All the youth served have a history of Adverse Childhood Experiences, and are now dealing with anxiety, depression, and behavior disruptions as a result. It is the only day treatment program in the City of Milwaukee that accepts kids under the age of 14 and the only program in the State of Wisconsin that serves kids ages five to eight years old.
Mental health care is not readily accessible to youth due to a shortage of providers in the area, lack of confidence in the system, financial constraints, and the stigma associated with mental illness. CFS makes mental health care easily accessible and convenient, in a location that is known and trusted by clients and their families.
Helping a child become more emotionally and behaviorally stable today means they can stay in school, function within their households, and have better hope for a healthy, balanced future. Donations for STRONG will be used to bridge the gap between what it costs to operate the STRONG program and what Medicaid reimburses for services ($3,000 - $4,000 per child for the full length of treatment).
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