The Healthcare Foundation of NJ Gives Grant to YCS Institute

The YCS Institute for Infant and Preschool Mental Health is dedicated to fostering healthy and strong mother/child relationships through counseling and support groups. The COVID-19 pandemic has made access to these mental health services even more critical to inner city mothers who are impacted by the stress caused by loss of income, social distancing, and the isolation of sheltering in place.

Recognizing this need, the Healthcare Foundation of NJ selected the YCS Institute to receive a $46,400 Emergency COVID-19 grant that will fund Telehealth (video-based) services, allowing the Institute to offer real time interactive support groups and individual counseling with online communication tools. Mothers will be able to access this support through their phones even if they do not have computers.

YCS is incredibly grateful to receive this COVID-19 Emergency grant from the Healthcare Foundation of NJ, according to Dayna Zatina Egan, YCS Institute clinical director.

“YCS provides essential services to pregnant women, new moms, and young children that must be reimagined in this time of social distancing,” said Marsha Atkind, Executive Director/CEO of the Healthcare Foundation of NJ. “The Healthcare Foundation of NJ was pleased to provide support to help ensure that YCS staff has the tools they need to provide services remotely to clients and partner agencies throughout the greater Newark area.”

About Youth Consultation Service (YCS)

Established more than 100 years ago, YCS is a social services and behavioral health non-profit agency that provides educational, community-based, and in-home services for children - birth through adulthood – with special needs across New Jersey.

About the Healthcare Foundation of NJ

Established in 1996, the Healthcare Foundation of NJ is an independent, endowed grant making organization. With roots in the Jewish Community, the Foundation is dedicated to improving the health and well-being of vulnerable, underserved populations in greater Newark and the Jewish Community of MetroWest NJ, elevating the quality of community healthcare, reducing disparities in access, and promoting the infusion of compassion and humanism into our healthcare system. The Foundation seeks to seed new initiatives, identify, and expand existing healthcare programs, support appropriate clinical and medical research, promote medical education to positively impact its targeted communities, and engage in partnerships to foster its goals.