Award honors those who help further mission through cooperation, collaboration

The Board of Directors of Seven Counties Services recently presented the 2013 Sunrise Award to the JCPS School System. The award recognizes an individual or organization whose cooperation and collaboration over the past year has helped further the mission of Seven Counties Services.

Seven Counties and JCPS have a long standing partnership in our joint desire to provide every opportunity for our students to succeed. One such collaboration is the recent Bingham Fellows project to create Louisville Linked. The CAREing (Collaboratively Acquiring Resources for Every Student) Partners are essential to student success since the needs and barriers of our students extend beyond the classroom walls. Seven Counties is a founding collaborative partner in Louisville Linked and we look forward to its community wide success.

Another very important community asset is the joint JCPS and Seven Counties behavioral health program within 120 JCPS schools. JCPS Partners with Seven Counties in our School Based Program. Our therapists serve as the go to source for students in need of counseling and therapy for any behavioral health or mental health issue with a crisis response time of 60 minutes or less. Over 7,700 children are served through this collaboration.

And finally, JCPS embraced the opportunity to support a new pilot program called Learning Rx. This program is like personal training for the brain just like you would train your body at the gym. The results could help change student behavior and other indicators to success that may not be directly related to academic performance but are often the result of struggling learners. The end goal is to expect that students will be able to better absorb information and perform significantly better on achievement tests and things that schools use for measurements. Through a $100,000 Gheens Foundation

Grant, Learning Rx, is partnering with two JCPS schools in a pilot program. Early results from the beginning of the pilot are extremely positive and we look forward to the outcomes at the end of the first pilot year.

As the safety net provider for mental health, developmental disability and substance abuse treatment and support services serving over 32,000 individuals annually, Seven Counties Services. appreciates and values those individuals and organizations who work hand in hand with us to serve those in need. The strength of any effort comes not from one individual or organization, but from many people and organizations joining hands and working together for a common good.