After supplying 69,000 individuals with COVID safety and cleaning supplies, and delivering over 623,000 meals to doorsteps across Rhode Island, our incredibly successful Be Safe Program is winding down and will end on March 1, 2023. Final request inquiries will close on February 15. A list of our alternative community resources is now available on our website.
Thank you so much to all of you who made Be Safe possible. Whether you volunteered your time or invested your money in the program, you have made a substantial difference in the lives of Rhode Islanders who are at greater risk from Covid-19 and who are experiencing food insecurity.
In March 2020 you joined Family Service of RI (FSRI) to support your neighbors in need. Together, we provided life-saving COVID-19 prevention supplies and food assistance. Over the past three years, 623,000 meals have been delivered. These deliveries helped those at greatest risk from Covid-19 lower their chance of exposure while helping them to overcome issues associated with food insecurity.
We at FSRI, are all inspired by the amazing response from both corporate and individual donors and volunteers. You all got involved during a time of uncertainty to support those whose already precarious situations were made nearly impossible by the pandemic. This program has been an enormous success because of you.
As we wrap up our work on Be Safe, we continue to work hard to help those who have been most affected by the pandemic. As the issues of food insecurity continue to be addressed through partnerships formed during the course of this program, we are now moving to address the children’s mental health crisis, a crisis that was exacerbated by the pandemic with a 50% increase in those seeking help from 2019 to present.
Thank you for your support and we look forward to continuing to work with you as we tackle the next obstacle– the children’s mental health crisis.
Rhode Island’s Children’s mental health is the collateral damage of the COVID pandemic. They are facing a mental health crisis like never before and we cannot sit still or stay silent.
One in three children in Rhode Island who are in need of mental health care have difficulty obtaining it, and this sad statistic is coupled with the fact that there has been a 50% increase in those seeking help since the pandemic. This is one of the most important and dire issues facing our children today. Family Service of Rhode Island, a leader in this field, is making the children’s mental health crisis our number one priority in 2023.
We are offering multiple programs and services to meet children where they are and to address their specific needs:
- Children’s Mobile Crisis Program – This program helps to remove barriers associated with getting children who are suffering from mental health issues the help they need quickly and safely, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.
- Parent-Child Interactive Therapy – Addresses the issues of younger children, ages 2-7, who are too often left out of much-needed therapy.
- Outpatient Counseling – Outpatient works with each client and their support network to develop skills to manage mood, thinking, and behaviors to foster resiliency and healing, and become happier and healthier.
- Trauma Systems Therapy – For children and adolescents who have experienced traumatic events and/or who live in environments with ongoing stress.
- School Based Mental Health – Students receive individual or group psychotherapy sessions to help them address presenting problems such as anxiety, depression, ADHD, anger management, and mood disorders.
- Youth Mental Health First Aid – teaches how to identify, understand and respond to signs of mental health and substance use challenges among children and adolescents ages 6 to 18.
We hope that you will join us as we take action to bring the children’s mental health crisis in RI to an end. We can all help to conclude this crisis by ensuring that children who are suffering receive the support they need.
