After months of discussion, The ARC of Clay County has chosen to give the Catherine Bryan School in West Point to Community Counseling Services (CCS).
For years, many of West Point’s youngsters started their kindergarten journey at the brick school building on the corner of Calhoun and Dix Streets. It was originally built in the 1970s to offer speech and special needs classes for pre-K children. Later, conventional pre-kindergarten classes were added and, most recently, T.K. Martin School joined forces with The ARC of Clay County and the West Point School District to offer extensive educational and therapeutic services for special needs children.
In recent years, the West Point School District has expanded services at East Side School. While this progress was taking place, the Department of Education ruled a principal must be located at Catherine Bryan School. With these changes, and the support of many organizations in the Clay County community, decisions had to be made about what to do with Catherine Bryan School, its mission and its special needs classes. The ARC of Clay County, the property owner of the school, decided to gift it to the mental health agency as a positive step to ensure continued services and growth.
“We are honored to have received this donation,” said Jackie Edwards, executive director of CCS. “The partnerships and developments that will come out of this gift will benefit families and children with special needs in the Golden Triangle area for years to come. There is a bright future for Catherine Bryan School.”
Perry Green, president of Renasant Bank, father to a special needs child and an ARC board member, said, “With CCS’s knowledge of mental health, developmental programs and years of services in this community, it made our decision to select them as the recipient of the building donation easy. Under Jackie Edward’s leadership services are sure to grow.”
What to expect
CCS plans to offer quarterly seminars to include information about treatments and community resources for children with disabilities, family and teacher education workshops and opportunities for networking and support. Dates for seminars, and a ribbon cutting, will be released soon.
Along with mental health services, CCS offers a variety of intellectual, developmental and specialized treatment programs. It has served 284 individuals, age 18 and under, in Clay County alone during the last year, resulting in almost 17,000 direct therapy hours.
CCS is a 501(c)3 nonprofit community mental health center providing quality mental health and addiction treatment through diversified services in Choctaw, Clay, Lowndes, Oktibbeha, Noxubee, Webster and Winston Counties. It is not a state agency and receives no direct state budget funds.
For more information, call 662-524-4347 or visit ccsms.org.
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