VCS Inc
Saving Lives in So Many Ways
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Rockland County Department of Mental Health operates a full array of adult services, but staff resources are inadequate to fully address the mental health needs of the community. They are dedicating their resources to serve the most seriously and persistently mentally ill in the community leaving a large population at risk due to lack of available services that a niche agency such as ourselves could provide i.e. assessment, counseling and case management. Access to affordable mental health services for youth, was one of the seven major needs for the county identified by all 2016 Focus Group Reports of the United Way of Rockland. At VCS, 23% of our intakes are for adolescents. Rockland is in need of additional clinic services for the adolescent population for students struggling to cope with a range of traumatic experiences including: rape, domestic violence, abuse by caregivers,: rape, domestic violence, abuse by caregivers, forced migration, poverty, homelessness, and bullying.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Counseling and Family Services
Affordable Multilingual Counseling, Parenting Apart Services, Families in Need of Support (FINS), Relatives as Parents Program (RAPP), Services for Older Adults and their Familes, Services for Caregivers, Parenting Classes in English & Spanish, Spanish Language Counselor Training, School Advocacy Assistance, Support Groups
Families in Need of Support
A school based program that provides intensive in-school counseling twice a week for at risk students
Rockland Student Advocacy Program
Provides information, referrals and direct advocacy to parents and guardians of school age children residing in Rockland County. Priority is given to youth experiencing educational or behavioral problems, children with educational disabilities of any kind, children of low income families, children of newly arrived immigrant families and children who are being bullied or harassed in school.
Parenting Apart Program
The VCS Parenting Apart Program
This program is useful for all separating parents, whether they have been married or not. Separation and divorce are stressful experiences for all involved, especially for children. This 16 hour educational program focuses on the needs of children during such times.
The VCS Parenting Apart Program is two parts:
A four-hour NY State certified introductory seminar followed by 12 individual sessions.
Topics include:
The separation/divorce process
What parents can do to help their children adjust
How children react
Tools for parenting apart
Tips on common parent pitfalls
Skills for listening to children
The class runs six times per year.
Parenting Skills Classes
Given in 12 week cycles for at-risk mothers in English and Spanish. Fathers are worked with individually.
Services for Older Adults and their Families
Older Adults Counseling Program
Serves residents, 60+, of Rockland who would benefit from discussing age related concerns with a trained counselor. Multilingual, weekly counseling sessions may be in-office, virtual, or at public venues such as a park, library, etc. Free while funding is available.
Information and Assistance
Multilingual assistance in connecting people to the appropriate needed resources in Rockland County. This service is free of charge.
Caregiver Weekly Support Groups
These groups provide information, resources and alternatives for those concerned with the challenges associated with aging parents or relatives. These weekly groups meet for an hour on various days and evenings.
Life Transitions Group
Older adults aging in place face changes that require good coping skills and mutual support from others. This group is a dynamic safe place for older adults to develop new relationships and learn from one another how to face life’s most changes.
Employee Assistance Program
Provides workshops and/or counseling services for people within companies
VCS Mental Health Clinic
An article 31 Outpatient Clinic Treatment Program licensed by the New York State Office of Mental Health. The Clinic provides outpatient mental health treatment to adults with a diagnosable mental health condition and who meet medical necessity for a higher level of care. Serving Children Age 10+, Adolescents and Adults.
Training
Opportunities about at VCS. Volunteer Counseling Training recruits, trains and supervises lay people from our community to provide a high level of counseling to others.
Graduate Student Internships
VCS is a highly sought after placement for social work and counseling programs throughout the NY metropolitan area
Where we work
Awards
Congratulations on 45 Years of Service 2015
President Barack Obama
Affiliations & memberships
United Way Member Agency
External reviews

Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of people who received clinical mental health care
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adults, Children and youth
Related Program
VCS Mental Health Clinic
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
The VCS Mental Health Clinic celebrated its 8th year in 2022 and saw approximately 70% growth from the prior year.
Total number of counseling sessions performed
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adults
Related Program
Counseling and Family Services
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
The Volunteer Counseling Program served a total of 676 clients in 2021, people of all ages & backgrounds dealing with mental health issues, domestic violence, and other forms of trauma.
Number of clients served
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Ethnic and racial groups
Related Program
Counseling and Family Services
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Context Notes
Included in our General Counseling Program is VCS PUENTES, the Spanish Language Program that offers VCS services to the Spanish speaking community
Number of training workshops
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adults
Related Program
Training
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Context Notes
These are: Counselor Trainings, NY Model for Batterer Programs National Training Institute, and Undoing Racism Workshops.
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
As a Mental Health Clinic, individuals receive treatment at our agency and the specialized services we offer at no cost to them. People who have had trauma, victims of domestic violence and the elderly have been identified as the under-served populations in our community. In addition, VCS Inc. runs several multilingual collaborative groups with marginalized cultural peoples, to help identify the needs of these various peoples, who are among our community’s most under-served and impoverished.
We find in Families in Need of Support (FINS) we have more success reaching youth when services are provided at schools due to economic-related transportation difficulties faced by families, resistance to engaging in mental health services among school-aged students, and disproportionate problems with access faced by marginalized communities.
Our proposal with the East Ramapo Central School District to establish a satellite site for our Clinic at Spring Valley High School was accepted in early 2022. As of 2022, the Clinic operates out of four satellite locations in schools: Spring Valley High School, Pomona Middle School, Haverstraw Elementary School and Ramapo High School
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
By operating a Mental Health Outpatient Mental Health Treatment Clinic, adults and children aged 10 and over are able to receive treatment at our agency and the specialized services we offer at no cost to them. We increased the number of consultation rooms to accommodate via a NYS Grant in 2018.
VCS looks forward to continued expansion of its scope of work while maintaining its viability in providing affordable, culturally sensitive mental health services to the people; in English and Spanish; adults AND adolescents of Rockland County who have limited if any access to mental health care.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
VCS has a dedicated clinical and administrative staff, each one of whom plays an integral part in our success. This year VCS expanded its clinical operating space with the winning of a $75,000 Office of Mental Health Nonprofit Infrastructure Capital Investment Program Grant enabling us to build-out 6 additional consultation rooms and re-floor the entire building, creating better, safer access to mental health services here at VCS.
Since the demand for the VCS FINS program is higher than we can meet, we've requested an expansion of our clinic license to work with people 18 and younger in-school in order to meet this critical youth community need. We have the staff, psychiatrist and a steady flow of interns to meet the needs of this expansion.
VCS has a 50 year history of consistent growth and expansion. With strong and experienced executive leadership and a hard-working and involved Board of Directors, and talented staff, there's no limit to our capabilities.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
The opening of the VCS Mental Health Clinic in 2015 was successful. In 2016 VCS was granted a further 3-year operating certificate with high ratings and glowing comments from the mental health community. In 2017, we increased our team to 12 staff members plus 2 interns allowing us to increase capacity to 150 clients. Additionally, the Clinic overshot its budget by about 10%. With the advent of the Clinic, VCS has become an ever more self-sustaining, well-respected and much needed agency in Rockland County.
In 2019, The VCS Mental Health Clinic, received its NYS OMH license renewal extending to the year 2023. Additional services included: Psychiatric Consultation and Telemental Health. Now serving Adolescents, Adults, Ages 10 and up, Children. Since the Clinic received approval for a license to work with youth we are working at our new Spring Valley High School Site and the Haverstraw Elementary School.
Since it is now possible to receive counseling and connect to other programs at VCS completely in Spanish through VCS PUENTES we aim to reach the Spanish speaking population who need counseling or other social services and we aim to raise awareness of this access-point and increase the staff as needed.
VCS has added French, Creole, Portuguese, Arabic and Yiddish to service access
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
VCS Inc
Board of directorsas of 01/19/2023
Derek Nelson
Steven T. Breen
Simona Chazen
Mimi Gelb
Jonathan Kupperman
Anita Levine
Mario Occhicone
Terry Knight
Esther Guzman
John Sadowski
Jon Cooper
Julie Wendholt
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Yes
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Sexual orientation
No data
Disability
No data