Center To Benefit From Grant Funding

CROCKETT - Kalin’s Center is excited to announce that Karisa Burke, M.A, LPC one of our local mental health professionals and team members was awarded the opportunity to be a part of a much-needed mental health training program. The training consists of on-site training, online training, and continued support through group phone calls.

Children’s Advocacy Centers of Texas (CACTX) – the statewide association of children’s advocacy centers (CACs) in Texas, was recently awarded close to $90,000 from The Meadows Foundation to conduct the first ever Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) Learning Collaborative for Texas CAC mental clinicians. 65 CACs across Texas provide services to approximately 40,000 children annually who have been affected by child abuse. 74% of these children are involved in sexual abuse cases. Kalin’s Center, serving both Houston and Trinity counties, provides first-time core services to over 75 children each year, many of whom require trauma-focused mental health services.

Dr. Brian Allen, Executive Director of the Texas Center for Child & Adolescent Trauma, will work with CACTX and lead the effort to provide this much-needed program so that mental health professionals, like Karisa Burke will be able to provide TF-CBT to their clients. “TF-CBT possesses the most empirical support of any intervention available for the treatment of sexually abused children,” said Dr. Allen. “Moving clinicians to a treatment approach that relies more heavily on research-support interventions, such as TF-CBT, has the potential to significantly increase the effectiveness of services, and achieve results in less time.”

The Collaborative will reach over 30 CAC mental health professionals who will provide this intervention to almost 600 children throughout the duration of the project. “The Learning Collaborative is a great opportunity to explore innovations in treatment for our clients affected by abuse. This will provide Mrs. Burke the tools to provide the highest quality treatment in the most effective manner,” said Debbie McCall, Kalin’s Center Executive Director.

To learn more about Kalin’s Center, visit www.kalinscenter,org or call 936-545-9455.