PLATINUM2023

VCS Inc

Saving Lives in So Many Ways

aka VCS   |   New City, NY   |  www.vcs-inc.org

Mission

VCS saves lives every day by providing counseling services and mental health treatment with an anti-racist, social justice mission. Working collaboratively with the community, VCS identifies and fills gaps in services with programs in behavioral healthcare, training and advocacy for those most in need. The VCS Mental Health Clinic is an Article 31 Outpatient Clinic Treatment Program licensed by the New York State Office of Mental Health. The clinic accepts Medicaid and most Medicaid Managed Care Plans. The VCS goal is to provide hope and promote wellness for individuals, families and communities through person-centered, recovery-oriented and strengths-based mental health counseling. VCS services are available in English, Spanish, French, Creole and Yiddish

Ruling year info

1974

CEO/Executive Director

Ruth Colón-Wagner

Main address

77 South Main Strreet

New City, NY 10956 USA

Show more contact info

Formerly known as

Volunteer Counseling Services of Rockland County, Inc.

EIN

13-2720369

NTEE code info

Family Services (P40)

Civil Rights, Social Action, and Advocacy N.E.C. (R99)

Voluntarism Promotion (T40)

IRS filing requirement

This organization is required to file an IRS Form 990 or 990-EZ.

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Communication

Programs and results

What we aim to solve

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

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

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

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

Population(s) Served
Adults
Unemployed people

A school based program that provides intensive in-school counseling twice a week for at risk students

Population(s) Served
Families
Adolescents

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.

Population(s) Served
Families
Children and youth

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.

Population(s) Served
Adults

Given in 12 week cycles for at-risk mothers in English and Spanish. Fathers are worked with individually.

Population(s) Served
Adults

​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.

Population(s) Served
Seniors
Caregivers

Provides workshops and/or counseling services for people within companies

Population(s) Served
Adults

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.

Population(s) Served
Adults
Adolescents
Children

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.

Population(s) Served
Adults

VCS is a highly sought after placement for social work and counseling programs throughout the NY metropolitan area

Population(s) Served
Adults

Where we work

Awards

Congratulations on 45 Years of Service 2015

President Barack Obama

Affiliations & memberships

United Way Member Agency

Our results

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

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

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.

Charting impact

Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.

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

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.

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.

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

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.

done We shared information about our current feedback practices.
  • How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?

  • Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?

  • What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?

Financials

VCS Inc
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Operations

The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.

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Connect with nonprofit leaders

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Build 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 directors
as of 01/19/2023
SOURCE: Self-reported by organization
Board chair

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

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.

  • 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

SOURCE: Self-reported; last updated 9/20/2022

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
Hispanic/Latino/Latina/Latinx
Gender identity
Female, Not transgender (cisgender)
Sexual orientation
Heterosexual or straight
Disability status
Person without a disability

Race & ethnicity

Gender identity

 

Sexual orientation

No data

Disability

No data