The Riverside Press-Enterprise
Group tackles Inland students' social, emotional needs
A local nonprofit organization provides culturally aware counseling that brings students together to support one another.
Clay Counseling thinks of itself as a mental health organization that is shaped by the community and serves the community. Offering paid services through Clay Counseling Solutions and low- to nocost services through the Clay Counseling Foundation, the organization serves elementary, middle, and high school students as well as adults. Clay Counseling Foundation offers academic coaching, which includes services that connect with students’ families, group and individual counseling and social and emotional wellness education. Programs are provided throughout Riverside and San Bernardino county schools and at its offices.
April Clay, who has been a therapist for 16 years, founded Clay Counseling Foundation six years ago after realizing she needed to formalize the organization’s philanthropic efforts. As a grandmother with a 6-year-old grandson growing up in San Bernardino County, she imagined his future as an adult. Clay wanted her grandson’s peers and neighbors to be healthy and well. By investing in the youth and parents of today, she said she believes she can help build a stronger community for her grandson and all the children in the region.
Clay Counseling Foundation’s programs take place on campuses and focuses on social and emotional wellness that is culturally proficient, understanding that students come from different backgrounds and different homes. In addition to racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic differences, children are also facing concerns that adults may not know about or understand, according to Clay.
“We want them to benefit from the framework that makes the most sense to them,” Clay said. “We don’t believe that it’s us who helps them, it’s the clients who helps themselves. We help them with changes in their behavior that will help them overall.”
In addition to one-on-one counseling in schools, Clay Counseling works with children in circles, giving them a place to discuss the nuances of being a kid in these times, discover ways in which they are all the same and see themselves as one group that is more successful when they help each other thrive. This includes antibullying workshops, unconscious bias training and antiracism workshops.
The need for children to see themselves as part of a cohort is important, according to Clay. Through helping children connect and build a rapport with one another, she hopes to create an environment in which children look out for one another. In schools, where children outnumber the adults, it is important that children feel their peers are looking out for them, she said. Whether that is to interact with a child who is sitting alone or to respond when another student is in trouble, these small actions can make children feel safe.
“Kids need positive behavioral supports where they see that adults care about them as individuals,” Clay said. “It changes classrooms if they see themselves as empowered. It changes the campus community.”
Recently, Clay Counseling Foundation received a Black Equity Fund Grant through the Inland Empire Community Foundation. The funding supports the organization’s academic coaching.
Although many of the organization’s school programs are funded by contracts with school districts, Clay Counseling Foundation could use more funding to support therapy for youths and families who cannot afford it and are looking to talk to someone with a shared background. The organization employs a diverse local staff.
“We want to see a better tomorrow and we think it happens by helping individuals today,” Clay said. “Our restorative work is preventative work, and it changes outcomes for the community down the road.”
For more information: 909804-8877 or claycounseling.org/