COLORADO SPRINGS — A non-profit in Colorado Springs is expanding its services after more and more people have been asking them for help. The Griffith Center offers mental and behavioral health programs for at-risk youth. Their team has made a plan to meet the needs of children in our community struggling with mental health and substance abuse.
The Griffith Center in Colorado Springs is building a new community space. With this expansion, the non-profit will hire more employees and offer new programs. The new building will be across the street from Memorial Park.
"Our kids are struggling. Our kids need help,” Tania Sossi, the CEO and President of the Griffith Center said.
Her life’s passion is helping at-risk youth that are most vulnerable. She had dedicated her career to assisting children who have experienced Truman trauma. She also helps children become connected and reconnected with families.
As an expert in behavioral health, Sossi is leading the Griffith Center team to try to find a solution to issues they say are only getting worse.
"We've definitely seen a big increase with children with depression and anxiety,” Sossi said.
She said since COVID they have seen a rise in mental health struggles, addiction, substance abuse and teen violence. Her team is looking to fix these problems. They will transform these rooms into a new community center.
"We're going to have play therapy rooms, visitation rooms, individual and family therapy. Rooms, along with some big group rooms that we can do parenting classes, but really to engage both youth and the parents and give them those resources and tools and skills that they need to be successful,” Sossi said.
With more space, Sossi said they will expand their substance abuse program and their outpatient behavioral health and therapy services including one for young adults with intellectual disabilities.
"Some of those services are going to include not only individual and family therapy, but we're also going to support children that are dealing and youth with their substance abuse. Issues we're going to be providing sort of teen groups,” Sossi said.
Sossi said they are hiring more mental health professionals, inducing Morgan Mote the Business Development Director for the center.
"When I as a provider or I as a community supporter struggle to find something for a young person, how can we expect that young person to find it on their own? And that is something that Griffith Center is committed to solving. We are opening this center to allow our young people to be able to walk in and find that support,” Mote said.
"That is how you do it. It can't be a secret. It can't be some weird business area. It needs to be a stand alone place and that's what we will provide,” Mote said.
Sossi said construction for the new community building will start in August and they hope to have the community center open in October.
The Griffith Centers has been providing mental health services in Colorado for 97 years.
“We are looking forward to our millennium going into our 100th year. It was established by Emily Griffith. She started the opportunity school and the boys home. The really neat thing is that we have those programs that exist today,” Sossi said.
She said over the years they have evolved to meet the needs of the community.
“We work with the most vulnerable population. We do a lot of work with the Department of Human Services. So we have a big sort of family preservation model where we really support youth, teens and their families with their trauma,” Sossi said.
They help children that go into the dependency and neglect sector. The contract with all the major counties across Colorado. The Griffith Center has six locations across the state ranging from Denver to the western slope.
“We've kind of built this ecosystem of mental health services,” Sossi said. “A lot of the kids that come in have experienced child abuse and neglect, it's really our team that's often sometimes the front runner is the first ones to come in. We provide a lower level service, which is supervised visitations, therapeutic visitations and then of course, my team also provides individual individual family and family therapy,” Sossi said.
She said a major goal of theirs is to connect kids back to their families as well as provide mental health education.
“My team and I developed a school based program. We work with at- risk kids and we also provide in- school counseling for students. So I think right now we're serving up to 18 or 19 school districts with hopefully a goal to be able to expand that model. Also as part of our sort of community program we're trying to support our app with use,” Sossi said.
"Griffith Center is here for you. Hope and healing is our message and that we will walk day in and day out beside you,” Mote said.
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