Grant Spotlight: Completely KIDS

Organization Name: Completely KIDS

Mission: Completely KIDS educates and empowers kids and families to create a safe, healthy, successful, and connected community.

Funded Program Description: The mental health program at Completely KIDS (CK) includes psychoeducation, skills-based groups, as well as individual therapy. Our skills-based groups are offered year-round at all our sites. These groups differ in topic and provide different skills and techniques to help kids learn positive ways to cope with everyday life struggles. Skills are focused around building the kids’ ability to: self-regulate, identify and master emotions, reduce stress, and express themselves in a healthy way. Groups are a great way for kids to learn these approaches in a group setting where they have the ability to learn from their peers as much as from the facilitator.

Our team consists of provisionally or fully licensed therapists that are equipped to help our kids, adults, and families through any tough time they may be facing. Therapy is facilitated at the students’ school site or at our CK main office during program time. Therapy services are available to any family participating in Completely KIDS programming. To request services, families contact the coordinator or the clinical director.

Successes of Program or Inspirational Stories: Jose is 4^th grader at Completely KIDS with a history of trauma, difficulty managing emotions, difficulty with following instructions, and has been known to run away from situations when things get tough. Jose began working with a Completely KIDS therapist Fall 2023. They started building rapport by playing games, reading various books together, and discussing topics he was interested in such as soccer, card games, etc. By taking time to develop therapeutic alliance, they were able to identify some of his needs by using various interventions such as mindfulness-based therapy, expressive art therapy, cognitive based therapy, and play therapy.

Jose has been learning to identify and label his emotions by using emotion wheels and colors to associate his feelings. He has learned some of his triggers and developed coping strategies relevant to him. Before they could develop coping skills, Jose and therapist read “Listening to My body” by Gabi Garcia, to guide Jose how to mindfully listen to what his body communicates to him and different self-regulation techniques he can implement depending on the situation as well as practicing new feeling words. One of his go-to self-regulation techniques is to just pause and breathe.

Also in therapy, they have discussed elements of healthy vs toxic relationships. They have identified supportive adults and have started discussing some of his trauma. Jose used expressive arts to identify family and friends, his emotions, and his thoughts. Through play therapy, Jose expresses his understanding of relationships, ability to gracefully accept loss and display great sportsmanship, practice patience and following directions.

His therapist, Clinical Director, CK 26 Coordinator, and Director of Program Quality developed a behavioral management plan for Jose to eliminate the punitive solutions he received in other environments due to unwanted behaviors. With this plan, Jose has a positive supportive adult identified for positive reinforcement. His therapist also evaluates how well Jose meets his goals weekly. Jose consistently meets his goals and looks forward to having an incentive.

We’ve had incidents where the “old” Jose would impulsively react but since the implementation of the Check-In Check-Out plan plus ongoing therapy, Jose has been managing his emotions and behaviors exceptionally well. Jose has maintained school and Completely KIDS attendance, saw a decrease in running away/leaving the building, improved his ability to follow instructions and accept no, and reduced behavioral outbursts. Jose knows Completely KIDS is a safe space for him where all the staff want him to succeed.

Contact Information:
Lulu Rangel LICSW LIMHP
lrangel@completelykids.org
completelykids.org
402-397-5809