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Mostly Cloudy Counseling Center receives grant
East Rockaway, Lynbrook, Hewlett-Woodmere students to benefit
A program that has enjoyed a decades-long run of success at Peninsula Counseling Center in Valley Stream has a had new life breathed into it after the center received thousands of dollars in grant money.
The Joan Baum Friends Program has been organized by PCC for over 30 years, reaching out to students in the Lynbrook, East Rockaway and Hewlett-Woodmere school districts. Last week, Town of Hempstead Supervisor Kate Murray, along with Councilmen Anthony Santino and Bruce Blakeman, announced they had secured a grant of $17,498 grant for the program, which seeks to connect elementary school students who are struggling socially with friends and mentors in their school district.
“We match teen volunteers from the high school in each district with a younger student in the elementary school of the same district who are really just looking for a friend,” said Audrey Goodman, coordinator of the Joan Baum Friends Program. “The younger students really just need someone who they feel like they can connect to and have a meaningful friendship with.” The program has worked extremely well, she said — and she’s not the only one singing its praises.
“I am thrilled that we are able to support the Peninsula Counseling Center’s efforts to offer positive support for our local youth,” Murray said when announcing the grant. “The Joan Baum Friends Program provides young students with an outlet to connect with student role models who help steer them through troubling times and challenges.”
“We applaud the Peninsula Counseling Center and the student mentors for their efforts in helping children in need of extra support,” Santino said. “We’re proud to assist an organization that serves the needs of our community’s youth,” Blakeman added.
“We do a lot with Peninsula Counseling Center,” said Karen Aquino, a social worker from the East Rockaway school district who works often with the center. “We send students there for counseling for all kinds of things and I always have nothing but good things to say about it. They really do a great job and care about the welfare of the kids that we send to them.”
