Funding will help sustain FCS Girls’ Empowerment Initiative
August 5, 2010 – Family Counseling Services of Greater Miami (FCS), a non-profit providing specialized mental health services for children and families, has been awarded a $25,000 grant, with funding support provided by the State Attorney’s Office Denise Moon Memorial Fund at Dade Community Foundation.
Family Counseling Services will use the funding to sustain one of its existing programs, the Girls’ Empowerment Initiative, serving at-risk adolescent females living in the area of Liberty City in partnership with Girl Power, Inc. FCS provides services including individual and group counseling, case management, anger management, violence prevention education and literacy tutoring to girls referred by the Department of Justice because they have been arrested and are involved with a probation officer.
“We are grateful to receive this grant from a fund created to honor and memorialize Denise Moon, an admirable woman who I had the pleasure of meeting and who fought tirelessly for the victims of crime,” said Felicia Mayer, Chief Executive Officer of FCS . “FCS will use these funds to continue her legacy, specifically to prevent crime by deterring the girls we serve from further criminal activity and counseling victims or witnesses to crime. In addition, the literacy tutoring offered through the Girls’ Empowerment Initiative provides education and youth development that strengthens these girls for a brighter future.”
Denise Moon served as head of the Victim’s Assistance Program in the Florida State Attorney’s office, fighting for victims of crime and reducing the effect of crime in the community. She fought an equally hard battle against cancer, and the State Attorney’s Office Denise Moon Memorial Fund at Dade Community Foundation was created in her memory to support efforts to reduce criminality and recidivism in the Miami-Dade community.
Family Counseling Services’ specialties include: Infant Mental Health, a unique specialty focusing on the relationship between a child and parent(s) or primary caregiver(s); Sexual Violence Intervention, provided through The Journey Institute program for survivors of sexual abuse and assault; Violence Prevention Education designed for at-risk children and youth; and Care Coordination and Family Therapy to help clients cope with personal, emotional and relationship problems.
