Stronger together: let’s unite for youth mental wellness

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Dear Editor:

As Thanksgiving approaches, my mind starts to wander toward all that we have to be grateful for at The Chris Center (TCC). Starting with you. This has been a year of unprecedented support – from new and old friends alike.

Thanks to your commitment to strengthening youth mental wellness, we have been able to take many first steps that were just a dream a year ago. This year, we developed and implemented a new Mental Wellness Toolkit that:

• Allows our PAWS therapy dog handlers to have a deeper impact on the students we serve
• Equips our handlers to harness teachable moments during the student-dog interaction
• Gives handlers the ability to teach wellness skills that can last the students a lifetime and strengthen their resiliency

TCC worked with Dr. Leanne Nieforth, assistant professor of Human-Animal Interaction at Purdue University’s Center for the Human-Animal Bond to develop this toolkit. This partnership, and resulting curriculum, represent a significant and wildly important first step for The Chris Center in trying to truly move the needle in youth mental wellness.

Through our partnership with Dr. Nieforth, TCC has had the unique opportunity to participate in meaningful academic research. What a privilege and honor to be able to contribute to the growing body of knowledge about therapy dogs and mental wellness!

The ripple effects of this entire project are nothing short of profound.

We can only do this transformative work with you walking alongside us, and I’m excited to see what lies ahead for us in the coming year. (And I do mean us!)

We know none of the youth we serve stand alone. They have parents/guardians, as well as teachers and counselors supporting them. So, when we think about truly serving the student, we must start to consider this holistically.

How can we help those who support our students reinforce the coping strategies we teach during our programs?

Through an Innovation Grant from the Marion County Commission on Youth (MCCOY), we are taking the next logical step to strengthen our school partnerships. By helping teachers and counselors better understand – not just our work – but our impact on their students, they can meaningfully integrate our programs into the school day. At the same time, we are learning the unique needs of educators and their students.

When we better support the schools, we better support their students.

As our work transcends beyond the student to their schools and families, we start to have a systems level impact.

The Chris Center is ready for that first step.

We have spent the year developing our organization’s first strategic plan, which will guide us into 2028. In full transparency, I am very excited about this plan providing the structure and direction we need to grow our programs and impact.

Our grit, tenacity, and sheer scrappiness got us to this point of structural, financial, and programmatic stability; the stability needed make the systems level impact we aim to make in the coming year.

When she founded The Chris Center three years ago, Nancy Elbert reminded us what it’s like for families who can’t access mental health services for their children in need. We can’t solve the mental health crisis, but we can add a layer of help … a layer of support.

It’s tough being a kid these days. And it’s tough being a parent who can’t access mental health resources in a timely manner. It’s tough being a teacher or guidance counselor who is now responsible for filling that mental health gap with few-to-no additional resources. None of us can do this work alone. But we can do it together …

Nancy and her family want to help double your impact. The Elbert Family – in memory of their son, brother, dad, uncle, and friend, Chris Elbert – will match your donation, up to $5,000!

We are truly Stronger Together.

Please support our end-of-year giving campaign with a donation that is meaningful to you. Here is how your support will make a direct impact on youth mental wellness…

• $50: supplies a therapy dog visit
• $100: supports art supplies for a Mindful Arts session
• $250: sponsors a PAWS training workshop
• $500: sponsors and alpaca fieldtrip
• $1,000: sponsors four new therapy dog teams

Any amount helps, any amount matters. It’s impactful when we all do our part … TOGETHER.

Thank you for your donation. Thank you for supporting youth mental wellness with The Chris Center.

With gratitude,

Sandra Moreira, MD, MBA
The Chris Center