Seneca County Community Schools
- Community Connections
- Mental Health Demonstration Grant
- Mental Health Awareness Training Grant
- STOP School Violence Grant
- Community Data
- Straight Talk on Mental Health
Community Connections
This guide provides contact information for many services and supports available to the community. These include emergency services, behavioral health services, autism supports, grief supports, mental health assessments, substance abuse, and teen mental health.
Finger Lakes Community Schools
We exist to support the development of culturally-responsive, trauma-informed community schools that have the capacity to deliver a continuum of evidence-based and restorative practices organized using multi-tiered systems of supports.
Seneca County Community Counseling
We provide treatment designed to minimize the symptoms and adverse effects of illness, maximize wellness, and promote recovery. Optional services may include developmental testing, psychological testing, health physicals, health monitoring, and psychiatric consultation.
Our purpose is to support the health and well-being of all youth and families in Seneca County. Seneca CARES builds on the System of Care philosophy to promote equality and trust among youth, caregivers, and those providing support.
UWSC builds community change by bringing hearts, minds and resources together. United we share a vision for what is possible when we all work together. We advocate for the health, education, and financial stability of every person in every community.
We are committed to doing our best for children, their families, and our communities. We provide these services with integrity and compassion: Prevention and Integration, Care Management and Specialized Services, and Foster Care and Residential Services.
Seneca County Suicide Prevention Coalition
We are an inclusive community that openly discusses suicide without stigma and offers hope and healing to those affected by suicide. We strive to provide necessary information and tools in order to raise public awareness, promote education, create messengers for change, and increase actions to reduce suicide throughout the county.
Seneca County Substance Abuse Coalition
Our mission is to reduce the use and prevent the abuse of substances by our youth and adults in our community through active partnerships and collaboration. Our vision is that all Seneca County residents have access to consistent, factual, data-driven prevention, education, and referral resources.
Mental Health Association of NYS
This is a not-for-profit organization that works to end the stigma against mental illness and promotes mental health wellness in New York State. MHANYS achieves this through training, education, advocacy and policy, community-based partnership programming, and by connecting individuals and families to help.
Mental Health Demonstration Grant
Click here for the laTEST nEWSLETTER
Meet our MHD Coaches 2023-24
News
On Friday, October 20th MHD internship students and supervisors participated in a Substance Use and Prevention Conference at Wayne Finger Lakes BOCES. Presentations included Hidden in Plain Site by Tim VanDamme from the Council on Alcoholism and Addictions of the Finger Lakes; Codependency, Family Dynamics & Lived Experiences by Katie DiSalvo, Clinical Director of Delphi Rise; and Resources, Prevention & Self-Care by Karen Burcroff of the United Way of Seneca County and Maria Gigliotti, LCSW. Thank you to our community partners for sharing your knowledge with our regional mental health professionals!
The Seneca Falls Central School District, in partnership with the University of Rochester, Medaille University, Roberts Wesleyan College, and Syracuse University, and in consortium with several local school districts, is proud to announce that it has been awarded 6 million dollars by the U.S. Department of Education to operate the Finger Lakes NY Mental Health Expansion Project. We are one of 67 projects nationwide to receive funding, out of over 185 applicants. Our project innovatively aims to meet the needs of 22 high-needs rural schools and serve 7,957 students. The program will enable these schools to expand mental health services by increasing its capacity to train school counselors, social workers, psychologists, and other mental health professionals.
This grant will expand the capacity of our schools through dynamic partnerships with the Institutions of Higher Education that will train school-based mental health service providers in evidence-based practices and professional development in mental health services that are inclusive, meet the needs of our students, and expand the pipeline of diverse mental health professionals into our schools.
Over the course of the project, one hundred and fifty or more graduate-level Interns will support the delivery of interventions designed to integrate community and school services to meet needs associated with trauma, poverty, transience, substance abuse, and violence. In addition, our project will operate a Grow Your Own internship program, in mental health, for rising 11th and 12th graders, which will also allow them to earn college credit.
“Seneca Falls CSD is eager for this opportunity to work with our neighboring districts and our community partners to help make our schools safer and more supportive,” said Dr. Michelle Reed, Superintendent of Schools. “Seneca County is positioned to lead the development of a Community Schools approach that models how to bring Mental Health, Law Enforcement, Education and other partners like colleges and local non-profits together to focus on common goals.”
Participating School Districts
Seneca Falls CSD (Lead Agency)
Geneva CSD
Marcus Whitman CSD
Marion CSD
Palmyra Macedon CSD
South Seneca CSD
Waterloo CSD
Williamson CSD
College & University Partners
University of Rochester
Medaille College
Roberts Wesleyan College
Nazareth College
Syracuse University
Mental Health Awareness Training Grant
Family Counseling Service of the Finger Lakes (FCSFL), in collaboration with Seneca County Community Schools, will train school staff (teachers, bus drivers, cafeteria workers, aides, etc.) and community agency staff who work with at-risk youth, in Youth Mental Health First Aid (YMHFA) and Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST). The focus of the Mental Health Awareness Training (MHAT) program will be on the Seneca Falls, South Seneca, and Waterloo Central School Districts. Family Counseling will partner with Glove House, Seneca County Community Counseling, United Way of Seneca County, and others to ensure that these programs have extended reach in the region. This is a five-year award, sunsetting in 2027.
STOP School Violence Grant
Seneca Falls Central School District, joined by Romulus and South Seneca in the Seneca County Community Schools Consortium, is the recipient of the Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance, and the Office of Justice Program’s 2021 Preventing School Violence STOP School Violence Program. The project will utilize three tiers of training to assess and respond to students of varying mental health to reduce the number of students who contemplate, attempt, and/or die by suicide. Such programs include Youth Mental Health First Aid (YMHFA), Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST), and CarePath. Each of these selected practices builds increased staff capacity which then impacts student safety and resiliency. Two of these three training courses (YMHFA and ASIST) utilize the train the trainer model to perpetuate skill sharing and knowledge in a thoughtful and sustainable manner. This project’s focus on the “train the trainer” model will put approximately 138 certified trainers and coaches into Seneca County by the conclusion of the grant. Collaboration is a core component of this project. Seneca County Community Counseling, Seneca Cares Network, Mental Health Association of NYS, Seneca County Community Action Network, United Way of Seneca County, and Seneca County Suicide Prevention Coalition have all agreed to partner with the schools on this work. With student wellbeing at the core of this initiative, we hope to provide training, provide mental health resources, connect organizations to each other, and limit/prevent the amount of self-harm and suicide/suicidal thoughts amongst Seneca County students, families, and in the community as a whole.
