LANCASTER – The Children’s Center of the Antelope Valley provides services to many unincorporated areas in north Los Angeles County. But despite the availability of service, access can be hampered to those communities most distant from the Center.
Recognizing this problem and a serious need, the Center has teamed up with Keppel Union School District and LA County’s Department of Mental Health Service Area 1 – District Chief JoEllen Perkins to provide a therapist for Lake Los Angeles School’s students. The program is called School Integration Project.
Diane Freeman, a marriage family therapist intern and community outreach coordinator for the Children’s Center, travels to the school three days a week to help her clients master specific skills intended to manage current and future challenges they face at school, at home, or in the community.
The Children’s Center is able to provide such services, in part, because of special grant funding by the Department of Mental Health for underserved communities.
Freeman currently works with 13 students, with another 10 signed up in the preliminary stages.
“I am grateful to have the opportunity to work for the Children’s Center of the Antelope Valley and with Lake LA School,” Freeman says. “The work I am doing there is truly a team effort which includes a great number of people from both CCAV and Lake LA School. The Lake LA School principal, school psychologist, teachers and staff have been very welcoming of CCAV on campus. I believe we make a great team!”
Incorporated in 1988, the Children’s Center of the Antelope Valley is a private non-profit organization that provides a continuum of services to child victims of abuse, children at risk of abuse, and their families.
The Center offers comprehensive prevention, intervention and treatment services and is the coordinating agency of multiple community partnerships involving both public and private agencies.
For more information on the Children’s Center, call 661-949-1206 or visit www.childrenscenter.av.org.
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