The Touchstone Foundation has awarded its Children's Behavioral Health Grants. This year, the Touchstone Foundation awarded $55,000 to five local organizations to increase accessibility and equity to youth mental wellness resources in Lancaster County. The recipients are Bench Mark Program, Horizons at Lancaster Country Day School, YWCA Lancaster, Community Action Partnership (CAP) of Lancaster County, and Samaritan Counseling Center.

Children's Behavioral Health Grants provide an opportunity for Lancaster County organizations to receive funding support for programs that help remove barriers for families and young people when accessing mental health care. Barriers can include the locations where mental health services are provided, transportation, language barriers, cultural sensitivity, and trauma-informed mental health care.

The Bench Mark Program serves youths in Lancaster County through physical wellness programs. The program started offering free personal training services to youths identified as at-risk by local high schools and community organizations.

Horizons at Lancaster Country Day School provides counseling services for its students and strives to create a learning environment that develops students' emotional intelligence in tandem with cognitive intelligence. With the grant, the school will be able to hire a temporary full-time school counselor during the summer months.

The YWCA Lancaster is increasing prevention education in its Sexual Assault Prevention and Counseling Center. As the rape crisis center for the county, the center provides primary prevention education programs to the community. The Healthy Relationship Project (HRP) is a researched-based, trauma-informed, and age-appropriate child sexual abuse prevention curriculum created by Prevent Child Abuse Vermont. The YWCA delivers the programs directly in schools to lower access barriers for children and families.

CAP of Lancaster County hosts Play and Learn programs to serve families with children birth to age 5 in communities in Lancaster County that have limited availability of high-quality early learning opportunities. Each session consists of child-directed play, caregiver learning, a coordinated group activity, and intentional space for caregivers to build social capital, as well as time for caregivers to explore resources with a focus on family well-being.

Samaritan Counseling Center is expanding its Teen Hope program. Teen Hope is a mental health awareness program screening students for depression, anxiety, and suicide risk. The funding from the Touchstone Foundation will help Teen Hope address the needs of the community by updating its video for parent and student education so that internal training modules will have clear, concise, and consistent expectations and protocols for staff, interns, and volunteers in the schools.

Touchstone Foundation is a nonprofit organization that focuses on elevating the mental well-being of youths and children in Lancaster County. To learn more, visit http://www.touchstonefound.org.