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A child colors at the ChildSavers clinic in Church Hill, where outpatient services are provided for trauma-informed and resilience-building mental health care.
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ChildSavers headquarters
On June 6, our city witnessed a devastating act of violence. What was expected to be a joyous occasion, the Huguenot High School graduation ceremony at the Altria Theater ended in tragedy. Shawn Jackson had just walked across the graduation stage. His stepfather, Lorenzo Smith, was in attendance to show love and support during this milestone event. Both were fatally shot just moments after Shawn received his diploma. The mayhem left five other gunshot victims with life-altering injuries. At least 12 others suffered other injuries or were treated for distress at the scene.
Our hearts are heavy with grief and pain as we mourn the loss of lives from senseless violence. One child dead from gun violence is far too many. Richmond Public Schools Superintendent Jason Kamras’ words at a press conference shortly after the shooting spoke volumes: “This just needs to stop.”
The individuals and families who have been affected by these tragedies deserve justice and change. We need to turn the path from escalating violence and death to one where every person can live and thrive.
Compounding this violence is the rise in children experiencing anxiety, depression, isolation and harm to self and others. Mental Health America ranks Virginia 48th in the nation for the rate of youth mental health challenges and access to care. Our children need help, and it is our collective responsibility as a community to act.
ChildSavers has a long history of working in the community and with Richmond Public Schools. In cases of violence, such as shootings, community based providers like us tend to deliver much of the care in the immediate aftermath and beyond.
We work with the Richmond Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities and other community partners on a gun violence prevention project that aims to provide mental health support, mentorship and career exploration to seventh and eighth graders who have not committed violent acts but have either experienced gun violence or who have siblings who have committed gun violence.
Last year, we connected with RPS and a community partner to conduct grief groups at Franklin Military Academy and Lucille M. Brown Middle School. Two of our therapists led cohorts that focused on learning how to understand and process grief. Resources like these are vital to help foster a supportive community leading to a happier, healthier and more inclusive society.
ChildSavers’ prevention-intervention approach to support children and families falls primarily into two main buckets: child development services that focus on supporting teachers and child care providers who work with children from birth to 5 years old, and trauma-informed, resilience-building mental health care that is centered on the child but impacts the entire family.
We offer outpatient services in our Church Hill clinic and in public schools in Richmond and Hopewell. Our immediate response therapists are available 24/7 to respond to trauma and violence impacting children in greater Richmond. Last year, we provided 15,676 therapy sessions to 969 children in the metro region, and the need for these services continues to grow.
Huguenot High School is one of the schools where we have full-time, on-site therapists, and it is also the location where ChildSavers see the largest number of clients. On the evening of June 6, our therapists immediately began contacting Huguenot clients and their families for safety checks.
Our clinicians provided support for those who experienced the incident through our on-call line, 804-305-2420. We saw a significant increase in hotline calls the afternoon of June 6 that continued through the night and into the following day as families reached out.
The day after the shooting, our school-based clinicians provided on-site support at the Huguenot Community Center, and had two bilingual clinicians present for Spanish speakers. Our clinicians continue to provide therapeutic support to recent graduates and current Huguenot students who were impacted by the shooting.
Gun violence is a reality that should not be normalized in our community. Our teams are tired, yet their commitment to supporting their clients is unwavering. Dee Jackson, one of the clinicians that responded to calls that week, spoke for the team, saying, “We continue to hear concerns for youths’ mental state through interactions with community members. We are devastated for the lives lost and changed following such tragedy. As a team we remain committed to supporting the Richmond community and hope that we can continue to provide support.”
Our hope is that our community will take action to end gun violence. Until then, we will continue to offer these services for our grieving children and families.
L. Robert Bolling is chief executive officer of ChildSavers, a 99-year-old nonprofit agency that provides mental health and child development services to children in the Greater Richmond area.
