09 Sep Genesis Promise Academy is Awarded a $176,890 Grant from the Jackson County Community Mental Health Fund

Genesis Promise Academy was recently awarded a $176,890 grant from Jackson County Community Mental Health Fund to support the counseling program.

The Counseling Program provides support services for students. Counselors employ Cognitive Behavioral Interventions (CBI) for individual and group therapy. Genesis employs training skills from Dialectical Behavior Therapy, focused on interpersonal skills and distress tolerance.

Mental health services are essential to the Genesis students’ success. Genesis provides comprehensive mental health/counseling services including: assessment/evaluation, individual/family/group counseling; behavioral intervention/management, & community/resource support referral. Groups focus on teen violence, drug prevention, & positive family/social relationships. The department is unique as a certified mental health provider service.  In response to ongoing severe trauma symptoms, the counseling program replaced in-school suspension with a therapeutic recovery room that enables a soft transition back to the classroom coupled with improved data tracking. The focus is on students with frequent recovery room visits to address ongoing behavior problems. The use of the recovery room and improved data tracking has helped counseling staff identify times, classrooms, or events that are most likely to trigger problematic behaviors. Students receive support services that are family-focused, person-centered, culturally responsive, and trauma informed.  The use of Cognitive Behavioral Interventions (CBI) for individual and group therapy has shown great success with children exposed to trauma.  The implementation of these tools has led to improvements in long-term behavior patterns.

Beginning as a VISTA program in 1975, Genesis today has served over 2,000 youth needing academic & social development to be successfully in their educational journey. Certified teachers offer 90 minutes of reading and math, mental health counseling, cultural/performing arts, computer instruction & intervention.  Genesis was created to address the special needs of our students. We help each student become a responsible and a self-sufficient learner.