Grant helps Child Crisis Center continue respite care program, parenting classes

The Child Crisis Center of El Pasowill continue reaching out to parents who need help caring for their children.

The center was awarded a $215,117 grant from the Texas Department of Families and Protective Services to provide respite care for children and parenting classes for a second consecutive year.

The services and classes are geared toward parents who find themselves in stressful and urgent situations, including a medical emergency, field training or deployment,parental drug or alcohol abuse, domestic violence or aresimply in need of relieving stress. Officials say providing parents asafe place to leave theirchildren canhelp eliminate child abuse and neglect.

Children who are admitted into residential care are provided their own bed, clothing, nutritious meals, medical attention, transportation to and from their home school, on-site tutoring, indoor/outdoor recreation and educational outings.

“In most family situations, a parent has extended family, such as a grandparent, aunt, brother or sister, to turn to for the care of their child when they need a break” said Al Velarde, executive director of the Child Crisis Center of El Paso. “However, there are many parents in our community who do not have extended family support but still face the stresses of daily living and constant care for their children. They are at a greater risk of abusing and neglecting their children, and we want to reach out to them so that we can provide that care during their times of need and prevent them from lashing out or turning on their children during stressful times.”

Parents who enroll on the programare offered up to 10 days of respite care to be used as needed within the year.Emergency day care offered by the YWCA can also be provided.Parent who have an open CPS investigation do not qualify.

Part of the grant also helps the center provide free parenting classes, including the STEP parenting courses, cover topics such as basic child development, effective behavior management techniques, improved communication, anger management and coping with stress to The voluntary classes are available in English and Spanish, and officials say they allow families to more effectively keep life at home stable.

Parents can reach a crisis counselor 24 hours a daycallingthe crisis hot lineat 915-562 HOPE (4673).A trained counselor will talk with the parent to immediately assist in relieving the crisis at hand and will offer various options to the parent, including respite care. The counselor will then meet with the parent to assess their needs and develop a plan.