Crowley Approves Funding for Mental Health Programs

Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley signed off on more than half a million in funding for two community mental health organizations that serve both youth and adults.

The funding includes approximately $408,000 for City on a Hill and $200,524 for the Walker’s Point Youth and Family Center. The funding will go toward expanding existing services at both organizations. The youth and family center will fund two additional licensed professional counselors, and City on a Hill will expand a telehealth program.

Crowley signed the funding resolution Tuesday morning at the Walker’s Point Youth and Family Center, 732 S. 21st St. The money comes from the county’s allocation of federal funding through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).

The funding for the two organizations is another “step forward” for the county’s goal of expanding mental health services, the county executive said. “This is not going to solve all of our problems,” he added, “we still need the partnership from the federal government, local municipalities as well as the state to make sure that we’re investing heavily into solving the mental health crisis.”

Shakita LaGrant-McClain, director of the county’s Department of Health and Human Services, said expanding community based-services is important for improving health outcomes at both the individual and community level. “Your mission to provide a safe environment for young people and their families to resolve conflicts and overcome the challenges by offering free and confidential counseling, emergency shelter and housing is incredibly impactful and important to the community,” she said.

The youth and family center has been in operation since 1976, said Megan O’Halloran, director of communications and fund development for the center. The center operates

an emergency youth shelter for up to eight children, as well as a free mental health clinic and a housing program for young adults. The two new counselors will be working on programming outside of the shelter, O’Halloran said, “and hopefully equipping people with the tools that they need to resolve these conflicts, before they would even have to come to us to seek the support that they need.”

Specifically, one counselor will be working with the Milwaukee Christian Center on a program operated out of the Kosciuszko Community Center, and the other will focus on LGBTQ youth programming and work out of the shelter.

“That was so compelling to me and the other members of the ARPA task force,” said Sup. Shawn Rolland, co-chair of the county’s ARPA Task Force, “in terms of investing in this program, scaling up a program that’s already working and is demonstrating success.”

City on a Hill, 2224 W. Kilbourn Ave., plans to use the funding from the resolution Crowley signed Tuesday to expand a program that provides mental health counseling through a telehealth kiosk in a private therapy room. Art Serna, CEO of City on a Hill, previously said the kiosk “opens us up to a provider base that’s actually nationwide that can come and provide for the needs of the community.” The expansion would cover more than 1,000 additional therapy sessions over the next two years, Serna told the ARPA Task Force.

City on a Hill primarily works with uninsured and underinsured patients. “We primarily serve an African American population, but we serve both black and brown families in our base,” Serna told the task force. “So we found that the level of trust required for folks to engage in this type of therapy is super important, and so we’ve developed that over 21 years.”