Children’s center to receive funds to create program

Families of special-needs children will get help under a new two-year program.

STAFF REPORT

HOWLAND — U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Niles, D-17th, will present a check for $124,000 to the Children’s Rehabilitation Center to increase the number of children who are served with therapeutic services.

The funding also will help to create a two-year program to help the families of the children served at the center.

The check presentation will occur at 11 a.m. today at the center, 885 Howland- Wilson Road.

The money is a congressional appropriations earmark that will allow the center to hire two additional part-time counselors and an additional part-time occupational therapist, speech pathologist and physical therapist, said Bob Foster, executive director of the center.

With the money, the center will provide counseling to about 800 children and their families that it now serves, as well as an additional 60 children and their families that are on a waiting list, Foster said.

The money will allow the center to provide therapy to an additional 78 children.

“Research shows that the rate of divorce in the average family in Trumbull County is about 50 percent,” Foster said. “When the stress of raising a child with special needs is factored in, divorce rates climb to about 75 percent.”

The center will work with the child, parents, siblings and extended family to overcome challenges associated with having a special-needs child, as well as help them improve their access to a range of therapeutic, educational and community resources.