IMPACT in the News - IMPACT cville

Crime & Drugs Elected as Ministry’s New Focus

October 30, 2014 By IMPACT

Election of Crime at Drugs as New Focus

Content for this post was taken from the Daily Progress coverage of our 9th Annual Assembly.

For years, Loretta Martin said, her sister has battled drug and alcohol abuse without being able to find adequate rehabilitation programs close to her family. She has been to programs in Richmond and Roanoke, but is “incapable of finding help on her own,” Martin said. She has been turned away from a psychiatric ward and can’t find housing.

“If there was some program for women with alcohol and drug problems in the local areas, families could stay connected and then the healing could begin,” Martin said. “I pray that she is okay and that God will continue to watch after her. Am I my sister’s keeper? Yes, I am. And I and my family will fight to find the care that she needs.

Martin’s story led to the Interfaith Movement Promoting Action by Congregating Together, IMPACT, choosing drugs and crime as its next project.

The nonprofit group, comprised of 27 Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and Unitarian Universalist congregations across Charlottesville and Albemarle County, met Monday evening to direct its focus on drugs and crime, housing or education.

Along with Martin, three other members told their stories and leaders encouraged voters to think about their own experiences to make a decision.

Mallika Rodriguez, a single mother, spoke about her struggle to find affordable, convenient and high-quality childcare. She said she had a hard time finding childcare that was able to work with her job schedule, which could change weekly.

“Sometimes when I’ve found a child care center that offered this flexible coverage, I found myself disappointed by the quality of the actual programs, the facilities or even the staff,” Rodriguez said.

Statistics provided from Child Care Aware show that, in 2011, Virginians typically paid between $8,300 and $10,650 a year for full-time care for infants and toddlers. In comparison, the 2012 in-state tuition at the University of Virginia was just more than $12,000.

Stephanie and Dominique Eley told their story of homelessness, stemming from the inability for both of them to keep a job expecting their child. They went through several houses, but never had to spend a night on the streets due to help they received from churches. They are now working with Habitat for Humanity to build their own home.

According to Habitat for Humanity, about 4,000 families in Charlottesville spend more than half of their income on housing.

Of the 254 votes cast Monday, crime and drugs received 116, housing received 80 and education received the remaining 58. Members from 24 congregations voted.

The night also featured a progress report on two earlier initiatives: young adult unemployment and youth mental health.

Through working with IMPACT, UVa Health Systems has applied for a grant that would allow it to take 50 unemployed or underemployed young adults, aged 18-25, for skills training, mentoring and education to help them get employment in the healthcare field, said Patricia Cluff, associate vice president for strategic relations and marketing for UVa Health Systems.

After completion of the program, candidates will then be able to apply for entry level positions at UVa Health Systems.

As for youth mental health, both Fluvanna and Greene counties have been able to install telepsychiatry equipment to help children get psychiatric services, said Region Ten Executive Director Robert Johnson.

8th Annual Nehemiah Action

May 7, 2014 By IMPACT

The content of this post is taken from the Daily Progress coverage of the Nehemiah Action.

Maybe they aren’t changing the world, but a yearlong effort by members of a local interfaith and cross-denomination organization is changing Central Virginia.

Efforts by the Interfaith Movement Promoting Action by Congregations Together — IMPACT — led to Region Ten plans to double the number of hours available for children’s mental health; more funding of homeless prevention programs; better communication and cohesion among homeless service providers; and an effort by the University of Virginia Health System to train local youth for entry-level medical positions.

A thousand or more community faithful from Christian, Jewish and Islamic congregations met Monday evening at John Paul Jones Arena for the eighth annual Nehemiah Action assembly to hear from agencies tasked with implementing the organization’s goals.

The goals were set at an October meeting of the organization.

“Our primary motive is faith, not civic duty,” said Bob Bayer, of Westminster Presbyterian Church and IMPACT’s co-president. “We are not a political movement, although we acknowledge that there is a political component to almost of the injustices we hope to address.”

The assembly was called to report the results of IMPACT’s efforts at addressing social and economic injustice, from unemployment among youth to the lack of mental health care for youth. Members of the organization met to discuss proposals and spent the past six months, and longer in some cases, working with local officials.

IMPACT committee members reported strides made in serving the region’s homeless families and in preventing those with emergency needs from becoming homeless. They noted that the organization’s efforts helped bring service providers together and make an additional $250,000 available via grants.

Perhaps the big win was a commitment by Region Ten, the agency that provides mental health services for Central Virginia, to hire a part-time child psychiatrist and expand the number of treatment hours available.

IMPACT officials noted that Region Ten, funded by state money and Medicaid, had only enough child psychiatrists and psychologists available to provide 15 hours a week, from 9 a.m. to noon Fridays. That left hundreds of children without care.

“For a community with the abundance of resources this community has, this patched together program is not enough,” said Sheila Herlihy, of Church of the Incarnation Catholic Church, who served on the group’s mental health committee.

Robert Johnson, executive director of Region Ten, said he and his staff agreed.

“We believe we have developed a plan, a basic strategy to expand telepsychiatric contacts and secure a part-time child psychiatrist, which would bring us to 40 hours a week of service,” Johnson said.

Johnson said Region Ten had found grants and money available to expand telepsychiatry into Nelson and Greene counties as well as hire the part-timer.

Although the televised service should be available in both counties by the end of the year, finding a part-time psychiatrist will be more difficult, he said. He expects someone to be hired by next summer.

Impact committee members studying youth employment had asked UVa Health System to start a pilot program of tuition waivers for 30 students to train in entry-level medical positions. They estimated the cost to be $90,000.

UVa officials agreed to look into grants that would create a similar program with other funding coming from local organizations and “stakeholders.” They stopped short of promising a unilaterally funded program should the grants fail or stakeholders not be found.

The agencies agreed to report back to Impact at the organization’s October assembly.

Daily Progress: IMPACT sharpens focus on mental health services for youth

April 11, 2014 By IMPACT

All content of this post was taken from Daily Progress coverage of our April 7th Rally.

Armed with the results of a survey of public school students in Charlottesville and Albemarle County, Sheila Herlihy on Monday made her case for bolstering child psychiatric care before several hundred people at the Church of the Incarnation.

“We know of 376 students in our local schools who have seriously considered suicide,’ Herlihy said, “and kids in crisis wait an average of three months to by seen by a psychiatrist at Region Ten [Community Services Board].”

Representatives of the 26 groups comprising the nonprofit Interfaith Movement Promoting Action by Congregating Together vowed action on the issue, culled from community meetings held the month before Virginia’s fragmented mental health system was thrust into the national spotlight with the case of Austin C. “Gus” Deeds.

The challenge comes as Region Ten, one of 40 community services boards across the state that form the backbone of the Virginia’s public mental health system, turns to localities facing for help retaining school counseling positions that would otherwise disappear when federal grant money dries up in June.

The nine social workers serving the county and city high schools and middle schools through the federal Safe Schools Healthy Students program worked with 910 students last school year and provided about 6,000 hours of mental health services, according to an annual report.

“We’re scrambling to secure funding for five of those positions,” said Neta Davis, senior director of Child and Family Services for Region Ten. “It’s been an invaluable service for the kids and the point is to prevent disasters and crises.”

Davis said she has requested that Albemarle County and Charlottesville fund two positions each at a cost of about $60,000 per position. Region Ten plans to fund the fifth.

More needs to be done to cut down the wait list for child psychiatry, Davis said, but she estimated the average for an initial consultation at four to six weeks.

“There is definitely a wait here and there is also a wait on the private side,” she said. “We would absolutely love to have a full-time child psychiatrist, but that would cost … more than $100,000.”

The wait for counseling and other mental services is not as long, she said. Davis said the organization provided mental health services to 1,135 children in Albemarle and Charlottesville in the last fiscal year, independent of the work done in schools.

Psychiatric services for children through Region Ten are available 15 hours per week through a contract with the University of Virginia’s Child and Family Psychiatry Department and Horizons Behavioral Health. The service is provided for nine hours each week in Charlottesville, four hours in Louisa County and two hours in Nelson County, Davis said.

“There is a national shortage of psychiatrists, especially in specialty areas such as child psychiatry,” said Eric Swensen, spokesman for UVa Medical Center.

IMPACT organizers say they have tackled complex problems before. Last year, the group took on homelessness and helped organize a coalition of nonprofit associations to share information and secure grant funding.

“Because of our working in separate silos, our community was missing out on hundreds of thousands of dollars in grant funding to address homelessness,” said Al Horton, pastor of First United Methodist Church in Charlottesville.

The group will hear an update on the progress of this initiative at IMPACT’s signature event May 5 at John Paul Jones Arena. The goal in all efforts, big and small, is to promote social justice, said Bob Bayer, liaison to the group for Westminster Presbyterian Church.

“Justice is a state where everybody in the community is related to with respect and with equity,” Bayer said. “Not equality, equity.”

Breaking news: Albemarle County Board of Supervisors adds Healthy Transitions to the 2012/13 proposed budget

March 15, 2012 By techkim

Yesterday, the Daily Progress reported that Healthy Transitions had been added to Albemarle County’s proposed FY12/13 Budget! You can read the article here.

Showing up really matters! Last month 100 IMPACT members attended Albemarle County’s Budget Work Session to stand up for the Healthy Transitions program. Yesterday, the Board of Supervisors added it to the proposed budget during their working session.

We need YOU to show up to the Nehemiah Action (March 26 at 6:00pm at John Paul Jones arena) in really large numbers. It demonstrates our commitment and support for Healthy Transitions to be funded every year and for a concrete solution to the issue of young adult unemployment.

Mental Health Initiative Update: IMPACT Goes to City Council and NBC 29 Feature

January 11, 2012 By impactcville

On Tuesday, January 3rd, a delegation of IMPACT leaders attended the Charlottesville City Council Meeting to remind the Councilors of their commitments made last March in front of 1,500 to fund the Healthy Transitions Program.

We also heard from Robert Johnson, Executive Director of Region Ten, who said that this psychiatric re-entry program is an overall cost savings to the community. Becase Healthy Transitions is preventing homelessness, costly visits to the ER, and recidivism, this $85,000/year program will end up saving the community $680,000 per year.

Lauren Chapin, Co-Facilitator of the Mental Health Research Committee, was featured on NBC 29.