ChildSavers is a Richmond, Virginia-based organization that addresses children’s mental health to help them recover from trauma. Their mission is to guide our community’s children through life’s critical moments with trauma-informed mental health and child development services. As part of its coordinated prevention and intervention model, they also offer training programs to healthcare workers, teachers, and other groups about the impact of childhood trauma and helping to build resilience.

Unrestricted grant funding provided by the Maximus Foundation provided support for the areas of greatest need within their organization: Mental Health Services and Child Development Services.

As a result, ChildSavers’ Mental Health Services team provided access to care for 668 children and families with limited resources. Their team provides child play therapy, family therapy, and psychiatric services for kids in greater Richmond by connecting youth with a trusted child therapist. Therapy session options focus on establishing safety, forming healthy attachments, developing emotional regulation skills, identifying resources, and honing resiliency. Options include:

• Outpatient Therapy: Their clinic-based therapists provide children’s mental health services.
• School-Based Therapy: By providing services in Richmond Public schools, they serve more children, engage with their families and teachers, and achieve improved outcomes.
• Virtual Therapy: ChildSavers offers virtual therapy for children and families during COVID-19.
• Immediate Response Therapy: Available 24/7, 365 days per year to children experiencing trauma.

Their Child Development Services (CDS) program increases the capacity of early childhood education providers. Grant funding subsidized the cost of training and professional development, helping eliminate a barrier to access for historically underpaid early childcare providers to advance their careers. By supporting providers with a broad range of training and professional development, ChildSavers helps providers deliver quality programs to children and families by offering programs like credentialing, mentoring, and nutrition education. By investing in CDS, they were able to serve more than 30,000 children in 70 localities throughout Central and Southwest Virginia last year.

Learn more about the impact of ChildSavers programs.