As a Mental Health Clinic, individuals will 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 have a project proposal with the East Ramapo Central School District to establish a satellite site for our Clinic at Spring Valley High School. 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.

By becoming a Mental Health Clinic, adults aged 18 and over are able to receive treatment at our agency and the specialized services we offer at no cost to them. We increase the number of consultation rooms to accommodate via a Grant in 2018. In our Families in Need of Support (FINS) Program we have more success reaching youth when services are provided at schools. We received a conditional license with the District's support to work with youth; next step is to begin piloting in-school clinic services. We've letters of support for the project from the United Way of Rockland County, the Rockland County Community Services Board, and the Rockland County Department of Mental Health. VCS looks forward to the 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 near 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.

There is a steady flow of Spanish speaking individuals seeking counseling as well as those needing a higher level of care in the Clinic. We continue to serve at capacity in our Student Advocacy Program, our Parenting and Divorce Programs, and Services for Older Adults and their families and our General Counseling Program. VCS keeps meticulous records to track progress. The VCS FINS program has expanded year-to-year and is now funded by four separate funding streams and is operating in four schools across the county. The Office of Mental health has GRANTED conditional approval for a license to work with youth and we are in the process of furthering the institution of the services with the school district. In 2018 we expanded programming to ensure the under-served Spanish speaking population has access to services. It is now possible to receive counseling and connect to other programs at VCS completely in Spanish through VCS PUENTES. PUENTES is the Spanish word for bridges.

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. 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. With conditional approval for a license to work with youth we are working with the school district to implement services. VCS has added French, Creole and Yiddish to service access