Thank you for helping CCB Thrive |
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In just one month we were able to raise $8,964 in support of our mission to #normalizetherapy and advocate for quality mental health care in our community. The amount of support that we received during the A Community Thrives campaign has been truly inspiring and humbling. Because of the generosity of our donors, we are now eligible for a larger grant from the Gannett Foundation to hire and onboard two clinically trained therapists to join our team. Grantees will be notified by the end of October.
As our waitlist for counseling continues to grow with frequency and urgency, we feel hopeful for a future where we can continue our mission of providing help, creating hope, and serving all by increasing accessibility to quality mental health care in our community.
On behalf of everyone at CCB Counseling, thank you for your generosity! We made a quick video to share our gratitude. Click HERE to watch!
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Play Therapy Saves Preschooler
from Expulsion
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Since 2014, Catholic Charities Bloomington has provided onsite counseling for children at Fairview Elementary School. Teachers refer students to receive direct services during the school day in the onsite therapy room. This embedded program increases accessibility to quality mental health care by removing barriers to access such as travel time. Many students that attend Fairview Elementary face multiple marginalizing poverty factors such as food scarcity, lack of insurance, and generational trauma. Thanks to our donors, we can provide free and reduced cost therapy to these families. We love sharing success stories from this partnership because these children are at the root of our mission to create hope for the future.
Four-year-old James* was on the brink of expulsion from his preschool program at Fairview. Already reduced to half-day because of his unruly and sometimes violent behavior, he was referred to CCB Counseling. His teachers and mother were desperate to keep him in school, but needed help with harm reduction and coping skills. On the first day of therapy with one of our clinically trained therapists, James yelled “No, no, no” kicking and screaming down the hallway. As soon as the door to the therapy space opened, James' demeanor completely shifted. His eyes lit up with confusion and then amazement. He wondered, “Had there been some sort of mistake?” He thought he was going to be punished again for disrupting his classmates. Instead, he found himself standing in front of shelves and cabinets full of toys and games.
The magic of nondirective Play Therapy techniques begins when the child feels comfortable enough to play and navigate difficult emotions through play. The job of the therapist is to create a safe space to process emotions and learn coping skills. James wanted to play monster flashlight tag and sword fight, which allowed him to unapologetically expel energy and connect in a playful manner with his therapist. As connection and trust began building between James and his therapist, he began to see their time together as an incentive to follow direction and learn with the other children. After just one month, James had improved so much that he was allowed to attend full-time preschool for the remainder of the school year.
James started kindergarten in August and his teachers and peers see him in a completely different light. He now has friends and is his teacher's special snack helper. When he becomes overwhelmed at school he asks for help and uses techniques learned in therapy to calm himself down. James has been discharged from CCB services and is now a thriving kindergartner without stigma or reputation. Goodbyes are always bittersweet for our child clients. Bitter, because we will miss spending time playing and watching them grow, yet sweet knowing that we have set them up for success.
*Name changed for Privacy
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Sophia Travis Grant Provides
ADHD Parent Support Group
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Catholic Charities Bloomington was recently awarded $3,260 from the Sophia Travis Grant to support our Living with ADHD: A Parent Support Group. This funding will help enrich the lives of youth living with ADHD by providing a safe group setting for their parents to connect, share experiences and resources, and learn interventions so they can overcome the stigma of the diagnosis and thrive together.
Our Living with ADHD group meets once per week virtually for six weeks and is facilitated by one of our clinically trained therapists. Each session begins by educating the parents on a guided intervention which includes creative problem-solving, Theraplay techniques, time management, or executive functioning management. We help parents acknowledge that this diagnosis makes their child special and realize the mental strength of their neurodivergent children. Creating a community of parents that are experiencing similar obstacles to effective parenting allows the group to affirm the struggle and uplift one another.
CCB is honored to be among the 25 other Monroe County nonprofits that were also awarded funding totaling $151,220 in funds dispersed to help in areas such as climate change, first responders, and youth enrichment opportunities.
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Heading Home Grant Update:
Beki Hilas Returns to CCB as Child Therapist
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Beki Hilas returned to Catholic Charities Bloomington as a full-time Mental Health Therapist after completing her Master of Social Work program at Indiana University. Beki worked as a student intern at CCB from January 2021 until May 2022 and is very excited to be back! She supports client growth and healing through providing individual therapy for adults and children. Beki uses an empowering and trauma-informed approach with clients, and often utilizes techniques such as non-directive play therapy and Theraplay with children and parents. Beki has a passion for helping people heal and learn healthy emotional processing and has spent years walking this journey from the other side of the therapy space.
Outside of her therapist life, Beki lives with her husband (George) and their kitty (Kali) in Bloomington. You can usually find Beki laughing too loudly with her friends at one of their houses or laying on a blanket in the grass. She enjoys reading, dancing, hiking, cooking, baking, and most importantly, quality time spent with the people she loves.
Beki is rejoining our team thanks to the generous funding from Community Foundation of Bloomington and Monroe County’s Heading Home grant. This all-encompassing grant will allow us to foster a partnership with families experiencing homelessness and provide 200 thirty-minute therapy sessions to children enrolled in the New Hope for Families Nest program. Funding will also help provide therapist supervision for a Parenting Empowerment Group educating parents in trauma-informed parenting techniques and resources. New Hope’s early childcare educators will also receive evidence-based trauma therapy training to support children at the Nest.
Pictured Above: Beki Hilas, LSW with the mobile Playtherapy kit purchased through funding granted by CFBMC Heading Home Grant.
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CCB is a proud United Way agency |
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Join us in building a more resilient, stronger community! Your support of United Way of Monroe County improves the lives and futures of all people in the community. The United Way brings partner agencies (like CCB) and community partners and works to eliminate inequities experienced by low-income and diverse populations so that all people have a safe, healthy home environment, achieve their educational potential, and increase their financial stability. Consider donating to their annual campaign here.
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Archdiocese of Indianapolis Legacy Gala
Date: Friday, February 10, 2023
Time: 5:30pm
Location: JW Marriott Indianapolis
Details: Join us for dinner and open bar, awards, auction, music from My Yellow Rickshaw! To sponsor or purchase tickets visit www.archindy.org/LegacyGala2023
Auction items are also needed and can be donated by clicking on the link provided. Contact Cheri Bush for more information.
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The Impact of Endowment Funds |
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All endowment funds for Archdiocesan parishes, schools and ministries are invested and managed by the Catholic Community Foundation (CCF). The total value of the more than 550 CCF endowment funds was more than $200 million in the last fiscal year.
Donors often ask why they should invest in an endowment fund when they want their gift to have an immediate impact. Endowments help ensure the future financial health of our Archdiocesan organizations. Endowments invested in CCF grow at a faster pace due to the combined investing power of the more than $200 million in assets.
As these funds grow, they not only provide a future income stream, but the annual distributions from endowments allow our entities to receive important operating funds today. In our last fiscal year, CCF endowments distributed more than $9 million to entities throughout the Archdiocese with more than half that amount benefitting parishes, schools and ministries.
To learn more about making a gift to an existing endowment or establishing a new one for Catholic Charities Bloomington, please contact us at ccf@archindy.org or
call 317-236-1482.
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To inquire about donating to Catholic Charities Bloomington, contact Cheri Bush at cbush@archindy.org
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Provide Mental Health Services |
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Help Catholic Charities by shopping for groceries
at no extra cost to you!
1. Register your Kroger Plus Card at Kroger.com/communityrewards (if you do not have one, they are available at the Customer Service desk at any Kroger). 2. Click on "Sign In" or "Create an Account".
3. Search for "Catholic Charities Bloomington" or enter CL196.
4. Click "enroll".
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