A weeks-long waiting list at Howard?s Domestic Violence Center was keeping many children from receiving the counseling services they needed right away, officials said.
“The waiting list was growing, and we saw there was a growing need,” said Jodi Finkelstein, the center?s executive director.
With help from a Horizon Foundation grant, the center has hired a second part-time counselor, eliminating the waiting list and allowing the center to see more children sooner.
When center officials contacted the foundation about three years ago, the center had one children?s counselor and a waiting list of more than 15 children, Finkelstein said.
Some children would have to wait two or three weeks for a counselor, said Jen Dugan, children?s program coordinator for the center.
The center recently received $12,500 from the Horizon Foundation for a part-time counselor. The money was part of $250,000 in Community Health Issues Program grants to local nonprofits.
The Horizon Foundation is a $90 million charity in Columbia that focuses on health and wellness issues.
The Domestic Violence Center works with children between the ages of 3 and 17 who often feel isolated and need a safe place and counselor they trust, Dugan said.
“It?s really important for us to have this early intervention for kids,” she said.
Getting children into counseling is crucial for the child?s immediate needs, as well as future generations, said Rich Krieg, president and CEO of the Horizon Foundation.
“Kids exposed [to domestic violence] could be prone to repeating that cycle,” he said.
