$194K will support Children’s Advocacy Center staffing, expanded North Quabbin footprint

Children’s Advocacy Center of Franklin County and North Quabbin Executive Director Jeffrey Trant, pictured in September 2023, explained the nonprofit has secured $194,000 to sustain its number of clinicians and expand its reach into the North Quabbin area.

Children’s Advocacy Center of Franklin County and North Quabbin Executive Director Jeffrey Trant, pictured in September 2023, explained the nonprofit has secured $194,000 to sustain its number of clinicians and expand its reach into the North Quabbin area. STAFF FILE PHOTO/PAUL FRANZ

By DOMENIC POLI

Staff Writer

Published: 04-02-2024 11:31 AM

GREENFIELD — The Children’s Advocacy Center of Franklin County and North Quabbin has secured $194,000 in federal funding to sustain its number of clinicians and expand its reach into the North Quabbin area.

Executive Director Jeffrey Trant explained the Greenfield-based nonprofit providing mental health services for children and families affected by sexual abuse submitted a congressionally directed spending application seeking money to help support its mission to offer trauma-informed mental health services.

“It will be spent on increased staffing, and also we are expanding our footprint into the North Quabbin region and these funds will help provide us with the resources to really accelerate that process,” Trant said. “We have three master’s- and doctorate-level clinicians on staff at the Children’s Advocacy Center and we have several funding streams coming to a conclusion. This will help sustain and grow the services.”

U.S. Sens. Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren recently announced that the money was designated for the nonprofit when President Joe Biden signed the fiscal year 2024 budget into law.

“The work of the Children’s Advocacy Center of Franklin County and North Quabbin in providing mental health services for children and families impacted by abuse is irreplaceable,” Markey said in a statement. “To support the expansion of their critical services, I’m proud Sen. Warren and I secured $194,000 in the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act.”

Trant said he appreciated that Warren personally called him to inform him when the bill was signed into law.

“Over the past two to three years, both the commonwealth of Massachusetts and the federal government, as well as local supporters, have made significant investments in the advocacy center,” he said. “We are just grateful and we are just enthusiastic about our ability to help more children and families.”

Trant also said some money will be used to open a Children’s Advocacy Center office in Orange. The nonprofit has for a year and a half provided its services to the North Quabbin region via a borrowed office space lent by Valuing Our Children, an organization dedicated to addressing the needs of youngsters, in Athol. Trant said an Orange spot has been selected, though he declined to disclose more information at this time.

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Reach Domenic Poli at: dpoli@recorder.com or 413-930-4120.