Chattanooga, Tennessee – The Richmont Community Counseling Center (RCCC), a subsidiary of Richmont Graduate University, received a $10,000 grant from the Community Foundation for Greater Chattanooga on Friday, December 14, 2012. This generous grant will provide Child-Adult Relationship Enhancement (C.A.R.E.) training for caretakers of at-risk children throughout Chattanooga.
Building on the evidence-based principles found in Parent-Child Interaction Therapy, the skills taught in C.A.R.E. are found to be highly effective in improving interactions between children and adults. Presently, C.A.R.E. has been approved by the Department of Human Services Child Licensing and can be easily conducted in three hour group sessions. During the trainings, RCCC’s therapists will teach and individually coach participants using probable real-life situations. Utilizing the grant from the Community Foundation and sponsoring free C.A.R.E. training throughout the city will allow service providers to be better equipped to connect with children and give more effective directions that children are more likely to obey. The C.A.R.E. training will also help caretakers increase positive appropriate behaviors, and manage problematic behaviors more efficiently.
“This grant is an incredible opportunity to offer highly effective and practical training to individuals who are directly influencing and shaping the next generation of Chattanooga residents,” said Christianna Luy, Richmont Graduate University’s Director of Grants. “We look forward to collaborating with service providers and increasing positive behaviors in children.”
Established in 2005, the RCCC, led Michelle Shelley, provides access to counseling and mental health services for uninsured or underinsured individuals, families and groups. Today, the RCCC has a permanent facility, two masters’ level counseling staff members, and five counseling interns. The staff members are highly educated, bilingual and ethnically diverse allowing for a greater breadth of populations served. Thus far, the Center’s services have been in such demand that all seven team members hold full client caseloads and yet there remains a lengthy waiting list of clients who desire to begin the counseling process.
As a subsidiary of Richmont Graduate University, the RCCC offers services to all of Chattanooga’s residents regardless of religion, age, race, gender or lifestyle. Presently, the most requested services include: Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT), child and adolescent therapy, Trauma-Focused Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT), depression/anxiety counseling, grief/loss counseling, marital counseling, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder counseling, and self-esteem/body image counseling. With a full-time Latina therapist, the RCCC also remains closely connected with Chattanooga’s Latino community.
To receive more information about the Richmont Community Counseling Center or to schedule an appointment, please contact Michelle Shelley at: mshelley@richmont.edu or 423-648-2436.