CLEVELAND – Cleveland City Council announced it will allocate $ 2.7 million to treat trauma through counseling programs at 22 recreational centers across the city.
“A large part of our community actually has to do with negative childhood experiences. Much of our community has been exposed to toxic stress and we want to offer a trauma-informed care model to our recreation centers, “said Blaine Griffin, Ward 6 ward councilor.” We want to go one step further. We want to provide the resources and availability of social workers and psychologists. We want to make sure we offer services that really help prevent violence and address the causes of so many other things that make our community suffer. “
The legislation aims to provide resources for adolescents and their families by recruiting professionals to treat generational trauma and toxic stress in centers frequented by adolescents and young adults in the Cleveland area.
“A lazy mind is the devil’s playground. All of this pent-up frustration that some of these young people have had, and that adds to the impulsiveness of these interpersonal feuds they may have been broadcasting on social media, “Griffin said. “The structure of a school. They were not in the structure of their church. They weren’t in the structure of the community center or recreation center. “
Yvonka Hall of the Black Health Coalition has several concerns when it comes to the newly approved project.
“That means having counselors and therapists who look like you in their community, who treat the whole person and take into account their past trauma, especially violence,” Hall said. “We make sure we have the confidentiality that people don’t feel compromised. Confidentiality is a big thing, especially when it comes to mental health, and that is mental health. When you go to an advice center in a leisure center, you know what? Everyone else in the leisure center knows that you just went to this advice center. “
Hall said the end of the federally funded midnight basketball program was a huge loss to the greater Cleveland area.
“That time between midnight and 5:00 am is probably the deadliest time in urban America. Non-traditional lessons can be something to watch. Hours at times when we start to have violent problems, ”Hall said. “Recreation centers shouldn’t be open from 9:00 am to 5:00 am. You shouldn’t have a business model. Bring that back and you actually have these all-round services and trauma-informed care during this time, then it could be a turning point for us. “
Griffin said the city couldn’t rely on federal grants alone to make change.
“Midnight basketball has been very successful and has helped a lot of people and it was done during peak hours when there was a lot of violence. Like other programs that come from the federal level, where the money comes from, and then when the money dries up, the program often dries up, “Griffin said on grants that could have a life cycle of three to five years.”
Griffin said the resources will be moving to community centers over the next few weeks, but he urges lawmakers to join in.
“Within the next few weeks you will see the young people again and do what they do. We put the tires back on the squares. We gradually built up the baseball field so we could get back to normal, ”said Griffin. “Until we really get the state and the federal government behind us, urban communities will always suffer disproportionately from the epidemic of violence.”
