Psychological Trauma Center Affiliated With Cedars-Sinai Receives Grant to Expand Services to Elementary Students in Venice

Los Angeles - Nov. 1, 2006 - For more than 25 years, the Psychological Trauma Center, affiliated with Cedars-Sinai Medical Center’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences, has provided school-based crisis intervention and mental health services to children affected by traumatic events such as neighborhood crime and domestic violence. Now, a $25,000 grant from the Ralph M. Parsons Foundation in Los Angeles has allowed the Center to expand its “Share and Care” program to help students at Broadway Elementary School in Venice along with the continuation of services at several other school sites within the Los Angeles Unified School District.

“Share and Care” is a group focused counseling program that uses art therapy and group discussions, led by an experienced therapist, to teach students new coping skills to help improve their academic performance and classroom behavior. It is being offered at Broadway Elementary School for the first time this fall.

Broadway Elementary School, located at 1015 Lincoln Boulevard in Venice, serves a predominately Hispanic and Black population. “Many families in the areas we serve struggle with economic challenges as well as battling poverty, gangs, drugs and crime,” says Suzanne Silverstein, president of the Psychological Trauma Center. “Our goal is to help these vulnerable students improve their classroom behavior, social skills, self-esteem and resiliency to violence by supporting them to become better learners and stay in school.”

The “Share and Care” Program has been operating in the LAUSD for twelve years and is currently servicing eleven schools throughout the Greater Los Angeles. The Parsons Foundation grant helps supplement the costs of providing the program at Broadway Elementary School, as well as at three other schools – Laurel Elementary and Rosewood Elementary in West Hollywood, and Figueroa Elementary in South Los Angeles.