The Umbrella (a program of Birmingham Group Health Services, Inc.) recently received a $20,000 grant from the Katharine Matthies Foundation (Bank of America, Trustee), to support a child advocate position at the program.
The Umbrella provides emergency, safe shelter, 24-hour crisis, counseling, advocacy and other support services to victims of domestic violence and their children in the Lower Naugatuck Valley and surrounding communities.
“We are extremely grateful to the Katharine Matthies Foundation for this grant and for their continued support of the Umbrella program,” said Susan DeLeon, director of the Umbrella. “The child advocate provides crucial support and advocacy services to sheltered and non-sheltered children, adolescents and teen victims of domestic violence and their mothers.”
Among other duties, the child advocate at the Umbrella is responsible for providing orientation for children entering Antoinette’s House (the Umbrella’s emergency shelter), helping children to develop safety plans for themselves, providing regular and continuous support, facilitating support groups and/or activity groups for children, assisting mothers in developing safety plans for themselves and their children, facilitating parenting support/education groups, and providing individual counseling specific to children’s needs.
“The Child Advocate’s role is a crucial one that allows us to better serve all family members who have been exposed to, and traumatized by, domestic violence,” DeLeon said.
For more information about the Umbrella program or about domestic violence services in the Valley community, call The Umbrella hotline 203 – 736-9944, or visit the BGHS Web site: www.bghealth.org
