Children's Mental Health
Mission: To promote innovative broad-based efforts to engage families in meeting the mental health needs of
children in Massachusetts and to emphasize the extraordinary therapeutic benefits of the arts.
The C. F. Adams Charitable Trust primarily seeks out opportunities in Massachusetts to assist broad-based
regional or statewide approaches to prevention, family involvement and access to children's mental health care.
Its support of providers of service is limited to the field of arts therapy and is focused on community-based
youth arts programs.
System Change/Family Involvement
Arts Therapy
System Change/Family Involvement
The growing awareness of children's mental health needs is coupled with a new emphasis on family involvement
that respects the family's cultural heritage. As understanding grows of the effects of trauma, violence, and sexual
abuse on the emotional development of children, more attention is directed to services designed to prevent or to
mitigate serious psychiatric diagnoses. The Trust assists programs that help further such understanding and bring
about changes in the ways that children and their families are served:
Adolescent Consultation Services
Adolescent Consultation Services provides comprehensive diagnostic and therapeutic services to low-income, high-risk,
court-involved children and their families. In partnership with the Juvenile Court, its clinicians evaluate children
and their families to understand their needs and to bring together the resources necessary to find real solutions to
their underlying problems.
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The C. F. Adams Charitable Trust provided three-year support to the Education and Advocacy Program to demonstrate the
value of in-depth assessment and referral work with court-involved juveniles and their families. A second multi-year
commitment is helping the organization to integrate the program as a core service and to extend the concept to other
juvenile courts.
"Support from C.F. Adams Charitable Trust has significantly strengthened the ACS model, which utilizes a public/private
partnership to move the lives of court-involved youth in positive directions. In particular, as ACS has organized statewide
efforts to address the mental health and substance abuse needs of court-involved youth, the outcome measures from the ACS
Education and Advocacy service are pivotal: the measures allow us to quickly and persuasively explain the powerful impact
of juvenile court clinic services by offering concrete evidence on how these services make a difference!"
Rebecca Pries, Executive Director
Adolescent Consultation Services
189 Cambridge Street
Cambridge, MA 02141
617-494- 0135
http://www.acskids.org/
Center for Public Representation – Rosie D. Case Implementation Project
The Center for Public Representation is a non-profit public interest law firm providing mental health law and disability law services.
It seeks to improve the quality of the lives of people with mental illness and other disabilities through the systemic enforcement of
their legal rights while promoting improvements in services for citizens with disabilities. The Center represents the plaintiffs in a
landmark class action lawsuit in Massachusetts, Rosie D. v. Patrick. The U. S. District Court ruled that the state had violated
federal law and ordered it to provide intensive home-based mental health services to enable Medicaid eligible individuals under 21 with
psychiatric or emotional disabilities to receive treatment and support in their homes and home communities. The Center is engaged in the
remedial phase of the case, which involves the planning, monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of the court order.
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The C. F. Adams Charitable Trust is supporting the Center's involvement in the remedial phase to ensure that the new children's
behavioral health system is properly developed, monitored, and implemented, consistent with the Court's directives and best practices.
The Center created a special website for this initiative – http://www.rosied.org/ -
to inform families, providers, advocates and experts. In addition, e-newsletters provide periodic updates on implementation.
"The Trust's support has been invaluable to the Center's collaborative work with the state agencies, the Court, the Court monitor,
as well as national experts, local providers, and family organizations, to represent the interests and needs of the children and their
families."
Steven Schwartz, Executive Director
Center for Public Representation
22 Green St.
Northampton, MA 01060
Phone: (413) 586-6024
http://www.centerforpublicrep.org/
Children's Mental Health Campaign
Five statewide organizations -- Children's Hospital Boston, Health Care for All, Health Law Advocates, Massachusetts Society for the
Prevention of Cruelty to Children, and Parent/Professional Advocacy League -- are leading a campaign to fix the broken children's mental
health care system in Massachusetts. The campaign builds on the release of the November 2006 paper, "Children's Mental Health in the
Commonwealth: The Time is NOW". The Coalition partners drafted legislation, developed a legislative strategy, broadened the coalition
to over 125 endorsing organizations, conducted regional meetings of providers and families, and secured passage of Chapter 321 of the Acts
of 2008, An Act Relative to Children's Mental Health, in a single legislative cycle.
The legislation (also referred to as "Yolanda's Law") provides for early routine screenings to identify and address mental health issues,
restructures the public system to improve service coordination, engages schools and addresses the problem of "stuck kids" who are placed
in restrictive settings because community resources are not adequately available. Building on its legislative success, the Campaign is
now focused on implementing the new law and identifying policy and budget issues that are barriers to sustained reform.
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The C. F. Adams Charitable Trust made direct grants to the five partner organizations to cover their staff costs during the planning
phase and supported the Campaign's education and outreach efforts. The Trust continues to be a major supporter of the overall Campaign's
efforts during the implementation phase.
"The Children’s Mental Health Campaign has made extraordinary progress, and the C. F. Adams Trust’s early support was critical to
our success. As we forge ahead, the Trust’s continued belief in this important work will help us solidify our gains and dramatically
improve access to mental health services for the 100,000 children who desperately need them."
Marylou Sudders, President, Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children
Contact: Catherine Dimechkie
Children's Hospital Trust
One Autumn Street
Boston, Ma 02215
Phone: (857) 218-3175
http://www.childrensmentalhealthcampaign.org/
Health Law Advocates
Health Law Advocates (HLA) is the only non-profit law firm in the country affiliated with a grass roots
organization (Health Care for All) and dedicated solely to ensuring access to health care for society's
most vulnerable members. HLA provides free legal representation to eligible consumers who live or work
in Massachusetts and seek access to health care.
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The C. F. Adams Charitable Trust helped to launch the Children's Mental Health Access Project
to apply HLA's legal expertise to the task of improving access to mental health services for children
in Massachusetts. HLA plans to leverage its experience to create the first statewide pro bono project
to ensure that needy families can get the legal assistance they need to obtain essential care for their
seriously mentally ill children.
"During the first two years of this project, HLA has been tackling the serious barriers that prevent families
from obtaining much-needed mental health services. Project staff have focused on client representation,
training of advocates, and the creation of collaborations with others in the field of children's mental health.
Another key activity of the Project washas been the drafting, in collaboration with the Children's Mental Health Campaign,
the omnibus mental health reform law – Chapter 321— that was signed into law in 2008."
Stephen Rosenfeld, Project Director
Health Law Advocates, Inc.
30 Winter Street
Suite 940
Boston, MA 02108
Ph: (617) 338-5241
http://www.hla-inc.org/
Massachusetts Advocates for Children
Massachusetts Advocates for Children (MAC) is dedicated to being an independent and effective voice for
children who face significant barriers to equal educational and life opportunities. MAC works to overcome
these barriers by changing conditions for many children, while also helping one child at a time.
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The C. F. Adams Charitable Trust made a multi-year commitment to the Trauma and Learning Policy Initiative
designed to help children who have been traumatized by family violence to learn and to succeed in school.
The project encourages and assists school systems to provide services to students whose learning is affected
by trauma caused by witnessing or experiencing violence.
"Support from the Adams Charitable Trust has been instrumental in our taking the Trauma and Learning Policy
Initiative to the next level by enabling us to fund a full-time coordinator. Having a multi-year grant allowed
us to establish a different kind of relationship with them-as partners working together toward the project's
goals. They gave us solid, constructive feedback on our project and helped us identify other potential funders,
without the stress of worrying about whether the grant would be renewed from year to year."
Jerry Mogul, Executive Director
Massachusetts Advocates for Children
25 Kingston Street
2nd. Floor
Boston, MA 02116
Phe: (617)357-8431
http://www.massadvocates.org/
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Arts Therapy
Expressive therapies, including art, music, dance and theatre, often enable children to reveal inner
emotions and fears that they are unable to verbalize. With appropriate therapeutic support, the children
can be helped to deal with their emotional and behavioral issues and to develop artistic talents and skills.
Youth arts development programs in community-based settings with clinical resources and the capacity for field
placements for student interns are the focus of the Trust's support.
Artists for Humanity
Artists for Humanity bridges economic, racial and social divisions by providing underserved youth with keys to self-sufficiency through paid
employment in the arts. The teens provide fine art and design services to Boston businesses and produce graphic work, paintings, video,
customized sculptures using recycled materials, murals, photographs, large-scale banners and more. Participants can progress from paid
apprenticeships to Youth Leaders as their artistic talents and entrepreneurial skills grow along with their personal and emotional development.
The program operates in the Epicenter, a 100% renewable energy facility developed and designed by the organization. The Epicenter has won 13
design and engineering awards and generates significant revenue through rentals to the public.
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The C. F. Adams Charitable Trust contributed to the building campaign. It also is providing operating support for the
apprenticeship and leadership programs for high-risk underserved urban teens.
"The C.F. Adams Trust has always had an active role in looking beyond what we say in our proposal to truly understanding the services
we provide for youth. Through in depth conversations, representatives of the Trust have helped us articulate and convey the value of our work.
Their interest in the participants we serve and the overall health and strategic development of our organization has always been evident and we
are so pleased to have them as an important partner in our efforts. The C.F. Adams Trust has also taken particular interest in the effectiveness
of Artists for Humanity’s work with underserved youth as it builds of self-confidence for participants and the drive to succeed in their academic,
personal and professional lives."
Susan Rodgerson, Executive/Artist Director
Artists for Humanity, Inc.
100 West Second Street
Boston, MA 02127
Phone: (617) 268-7620
http://www.afhboston.com/
Community Music Center of Boston
Community Music Center of Boston provides music education and related services to diverse constituencies, with an
emphasis on reaching those who are unlikely to be taught by private teachers and conservatories. These include
students from traditionally underserved neighborhoods, as well as special needs populations with physical, cognitive,
and/or social challenges. The Center offers a wide variety of programs in music, visual arts and music and movement therapy.
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The C. F. Adams Charitable Trust made a multi-year commitment to the Music Therapy Program to serve
children with developmental delays, autism or psychiatric disorders. Music therapy addresses the
physical, psychological, emotional, cognitive and social needs of children within a therapeutic relationship.
It focuses on meeting therapeutic goals, which distinguishes it from musical entertainment or musical
education, and helps children to develop life skills.
"Foundation funding has allowed the Music Therapy Program to hire a staff therapist who helped develop an inventive
music program, "Experience Music" that tailors music education and music experience to the developing student. It also makes
it possible to subsidize in-house music therapy session for families who are financially strapped due to the many services that
their children with special needs require."
David Lapin, Executive Director
Community Music Center of Boston
34 Warren Ave.
Boston, MA 02116
Ph: (617)482-7494
http://www.cmcb.org/
Express Yourself!
Express Yourself celebrates the power of creative arts and changes the lives of underserved youth in the community and in residential
treatment facilities. Each year, 150 youth work with staff and volunteers to produce a celebratory performance on the stage of the
Citi Wang Theater in Boston. The young people develop the program theme, create the songs and choreography, make the sets and perform
as singers and dancers.
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TThe C. F. Adams Charitable Trust provides multi-year operating support for the program activities that involve deeply troubled
youth. It also helped to renovate the program's studio space to include more computer graphics capabilities resulting in
exploration of another art form that creates an exciting addition to the Citi Wang Theater set design and exhibitions.
"The C. F. Adams Charitable Trust has been an effective and welcome partner to Express Yourself. Their generosity allows
exploration of programming, increasing creative possibilities with these youth who have often felt isolated. The result of the
partnership is "seen and heard" at every performance and exhibition."
Paula Conrad and Stan Strickland, Co-Directors
Express Yourself
200 Rantoul Street 
Beverly, MA 01915
(978) 927-8600
http://www.expressyourselfinc.org/
RAW Art Works
Based in downtown Lynn, RAW Art Works offers a safe haven for young people and encourages them to
explore creative ways to express their perceptions of themselves and the world around them. Mentoring
programs and advanced arts programs engage older teens to become role models and to develop their
artistic talents.
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The C. F. Adams Charitable Trust's general support for the wide range of programs offered to
children and teens is intended to assure that the therapeutic and artistic goals continue to
be closely intertwined. The strength of the artistic quality of the programs is matched by the
attention to the emotional and social issues faced by young men and young women as they navigate
adolescence.
"CF Adams Charitable Trust is one of our very few funders who truly understands and actively promotes the art
therapy model. With the Trust's backing, we can expand our dialogue with funders who have doubted art therapy, pointing
to the leadership of this respected foundation. Because they understand the art therapy model, the Trust also understands
that is it crucial that we retain a consistent staff of adults with very specific credentials to work with our kids and
build trusting relationships with them throughout their childhood and adolescence. The CF Adams Charitable Trust is helping
us think about and actualize plans to retain our talented and committed staff for the long term. It has been a gift to have
a funder who really understands our work and mission, from the big theories right down to the not-so-glamourous daily
operations!"
Kit Jenkins, Executive Director
RAW Art Works
37 Central Square
Lynn, MA, 01901
Ph: (781)593-5515
http://www.rawart.org/
Urban Improv
Urban Improv's mission is to challenge young people to meet the major issues in their lives head-on.
By participating in an innovative, interactive curriculum, students from Boston public schools develop
the necessary skills of problem solving, cooperation, and leadership. Theatre improvisation is used
to teach violence prevention, conflict resolution, decision-making and impulse control.
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The C. F. Adams Charitable Trust made a two-year commitment toward the development of an intensive curriculum
aimed at 7th grade students working in conjunction with therapists from the Trauma Center. Testing and
evaluation of the pilot program will ascertain the effectiveness of the curriculum designed to help students
deal with bullying, gang violence and peer pressure.
"The Intensive , a clinical intervention and violence prevention program for middle school children exposed
to trauma and violence, aims to reduce the risk of perpetrating violence and/or becoming a victim of violence. Research
findings show that Urban Improv's method is effective in reducing violence among participating 4th graders. However,
research also found that once these children reach the 8th grade, the benefit from the current program decreases dramatically
and a more intensive program is needed.
"The Intensive is designed to help these students, the majority of whom have already been personally impacted
by trauma and violence, to develop vital coping skills to respond effectively to the formidable challenges they face in their
lives. Through the generous support of C.F. Adams Trust, Urban Improv is helping at risk Boston teens to find alternatives to
violence, through the therapeutic arts."
Kippy Dewey, Executive Director
Urban Improv
Mailing address:
8 St. John Street
Jamaica Plain, MA 02130
Ph: (617)524-7049
http://www.urbanimprov.org/
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