Philanthropic group gives $500K grant to nonprofit counseling center

CEO David Robeck always dreamed Bridge Counseling Associates would have a wing dedicated to treating children’s mental health. Now a major grant from the Nevada Women’s Philanthropy will help make that dream a reality.

“We had a vacant spot,” Robeck said. “I had reserved it. I said, ‘This going to be our kids wing.’ We bought the building 2½ years ago, and it’s been sitting in mothballs all this time to get the funding.”

Bridge Counseling, a nonprofit counseling center with locations in southeast and central Las Vegas, received a $500,000 grant from the philanthropic organization. Construction on the Bridge Child and Youth Community Treatment Center and a practicum room for workforce development began in July.

Nevada Women’s Philanthropy President Sara Costello said her group was drawn to the Bridge project because they saw a need to help children facing mental health issues, given the isolating nature of the coronavirus pandemic.

“Given the pandemic, we felt like kids were kind of underserved,” Costello said. “They got lost in the shuffle. With the critical need of kids at home, virtual learning and being cramped and indoors and not having that social interaction, which is so important, we felt like this was one really huge need in our community. It really resonated with us.”

The McLeod Campus, 4221 McLeod Drive in Clark County, has primarily focused on adult services. But staff has seen the need for youth-focused services through its adults, Robeck said.

“So many of the kids in our community come from troubled homes,” he said. “We’ve still got to send them back to those families and they have to have, at the very least, (tools to) be working on their own mental health and substance abuse, as early as 11 or 12 years old, but they’ve got to have some strategies for working around the parents who might be smoking pot or doing drugs right in front of them — or encouraging them to do it with them.”

The youth center will include six rooms dedicated to therapy and treatment of anyone between 3 and 17 years old. Clients will mostly come from referrals from other agencies, Robeck said. Services are offered on a sliding fee scale.

Collaboration was one of the reasons NWP was interested in the project. Bridge Counseling, which has been operating in Vegas since 1971, has a history of working with other organizations to get the best services for clients, Costello said.

“One of the biggest things for us is looking at collaborations,” she said. “They partner with so many agencies in town. It’s not them in a silo, out by themselves. They’re working with everyone in the community for the betterment of the community. If another agency can’t help someone but they know David can, they help each other.”

The $500,000 grant is an annual award through NWP. Previous grant cycles, which begin with applications in October and a final vote and announcement by the following spring, have been a lower amount. But fundraising during the pandemic has been a particular pride point of the organization.

“We were really fortunate to keep that level, especially this last year with the pandemic, to keep it at $500,000,” Costello said. “That was a big deal for us and our members.”

Funds will support construction of the wing, the practicum room — featuring individual rooms and a group therapy room for master’s degree-level students to practice and receive clinicians to receive specialized training — and three more clinicians, Robeck said.

“It makes a difference because $500,000 is not a minor uptick for anybody, I don’t care how large that agency is, you can do a real meaningful project with $500,000,” he said. “This really gives us the chance to fund where we could have never funded.”

McKenna Ross is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms. Contact her at mross@reviewjournal.com. Follow @mckenna_ross_ on Twitter.