Texas Center For Child And Family Studies Awarded Additional $1.5 Million In Rebuild Texas Fund Grant To Support Foster Care Children, Families Impacted By Harvey

AUSTIN, Texas, July 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Texas Center for Child and Family Studies ("the Center"), the 501c3 non-profit arm of the Texas Alliance of Child and Family Services TACFS, today announced an additional $1.5 million grant from the Rebuild Texas Fund to support the Center's Healing from Harvey work, focused on recovery and relief efforts for at-risk families and children impacted by Hurricane Harvey.  

The funding expands on an initial $800,000 grant, announced in February and awarded in April, that is being put to work in local agencies and non-profit organizations across Houston, Beaumont and the Texas Gulf Coast.

"The Center's second round of grant money from the Rebuild Texas Fund will allow us not only to continue to support ongoing and substantial relief and recovery efforts but further expand our work in hurricane-impacted areas," said Katie Olse, Executive Director of TACFS and the Center. "We'll be broadening our support to also include organizations that support child abuse and neglect prevention and family preservation, in addition to the work already underway to support capacity building and mitigating trauma in the foster care system."

In April, The Center awarded grants to 12 community child and family organizations and agencies to support 15 recovery and relief projects. The grantees are working to address the compounding trauma on children and families who survived Hurricane Harvey, while also looking at ways to address the slow growth or loss of foster care capacity as a direct result of the hurricane. Learn more about the initial round of grants at tacfs.org/thecenter.

Just under two months underway, The Center noted early success stories and progress in its first round of funding, including:

• Capacity building
• 44 new prospective foster care families attending information session;
• Training of 21 families and 24 individuals for pre-service and skills training necessary for foster care; and
• 17 families approved and verified to foster
  
  
• Mitigating trauma
• 811 children provided therapeutic services; and
• Community grief counseling services and therapeutic projects deployed

"As the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Harvey approaches, we've seen continuing need to support the varied and complex post-hurricane challenges facing the child welfare system," said Neeraj Aggarwal, Director of Rebuild Texas Fund.

"The Texas Center for Child and Family Services will continue to work with its local partners to support programs that mitigate hurricane-induced trauma and build greater capacity and services for foster care children, but this new round of funding will also allow for prevention and family preservation work, as well. Rebuild Texas Fund is proud to support this work," added Aggarwal.

The Center anticipates publishing its RFP within the next 6-8 weeks with awards announcements anticipated in September. The Center will continue to monitor oversee existing grantees' work with children and families in the greater Houston, Beaumont and Texas Gulf Coast regions. To learn more about this new funding and The Center for Child and Family Studies' Hurricane Harvey work, visit tacfs.org/thecenter.

To learn more about the Rebuild Texas Fund, visit rebuildtx.org.

About The Texas Center for Child and Family Studies
To learn more about The Texas Center for Child and Family Studies and its Hurricane Harvey relief and recovery efforts, visit txcentercfs.org. The Center is the 501c3 non-profit arm of the Texas Alliance of Child and Family Services (TACFS) which was formed in 1976 by mission-driven direct care organizations to strengthen the care, services, and practices for at-risk children, youth, and families. It achieves this mission through education and training, collaboration, and advocacy. Find us online at tacfs.org/thecenter.

About Rebuild Texas Fund
The Rebuild Texas Fund is a collaborative project of the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation and the OneStar Foundation, established to support the rebuilding efforts in communities impacted by Hurricane Harvey. The Rebuild Texas Fund works alongside organizations within the impacted communities that are making an impact in the following six focus areas: community and economic development; health; housing; education and childcare; transportation and workforce; and capital for rebuilding small businesses. The Rebuild Texas Fund will continue to fund projects and organizations within these areas through the end of 2019. Funding through the Rebuild Texas Fund is provided to eligible nonprofit, government, corporate, and philanthropic organizations working on the ground in Texas communities, that have been affected by Hurricane Harvey. More information about the Rebuild Texas Fund is available at rebuildtx.org.   

SOURCE Texas Center for Child and Family Studies

Related Links

http://www.tacfs.org/thecenter