Young philanthropists to award $15,000 to Kent & Sussex children’s mental health programs

GEORGETOWN, Del. — The Next Generation – Southern Delaware (Next Gen South) will award a total of $15,000 in grants to organizations serving the mental health needs of youth in Kent and Sussex Counties. Children & Families First’s Seaford House, Delaware Guidance Services for Children and Youth, Inc., and Delaware State University each will receive $5,000.

Children & Families First’s Seaford House provides clinical day and residential mental health treatment to some of Delaware’s most difficult to place youth between the ages of 12 and 17. Seaford House will the grant to expand the Expressive Therapy program, which employs dance and music therapy to support teens on their path to recovery.

Delaware Guidance Services will use the grant to provide individual and group outpatient counseling services to low-income children and families at the first signs of trouble.

Delaware State University will put the grant toward Project Resilience. The project, which will be headed by a licensed clinical social worker with expertise in trauma and recovery and an associate professor in the Department of Social Work, DSU students will serve as community outreach workers, building relationships with schools, youth programs and recreation centers in Kent and Sussex Counties.

Next Gen South will present the 2014 grants at an awards ceremony on Thursday, December 11, 2014 at 6:15 p.m. at the Milford Public Library.

For more information, contact Shannon Owens, chair of Next Gen South’s grants committee, at 302.856.9568.