River Valley Counseling Center Expands Partnership With Roca

HOLYOKE — River Valley Counseling Center (RVCC) has expanded its partnership with Roca to provide clinical services to women in the agency’s Young Women’s Program in Springfield. RVCC has been partnering with Roca since 2018 to provide clinical services to its Men’s Program in Holyoke.

“River Valley Counseling Center is excited to expand our clinical services to include the Roca Springfield Young Women’s Program. We look forward to providing individual therapy, group therapy, and care coordination to support the young women and young mothers in developing goals and supporting them in achieving their goals and dreams,” said Eileen Naughton, clinical supervisor at RVCC.

In addition to clinical services, the team will develop two curriculums, one for anger management and one for parents who are involved with the Department of Children and Families (DCF). The latter will include how to manage the stress of being involved in the DCF system while effectively meeting their service-plan goals, how to advocate for themselves and their families, developing safety plans, and utilizing support networks and substance-use prevention.

RVCC’s mission is to improve the health of everyone in the community. It supports Roca’s mission of being a relentless force in disrupting incarceration, poverty, and racism by engaging the young adults, police, and systems at the center of urban violence in relationships to address trauma, find hope, and drive change.

“For the past three years, RVCC has provided Roca’s young men in Holyoke with a pivotal pathway to clinical behavioral healthcare — a critical companion to our youth workers’ delivery of cognitive behavioral theory on the streets,” said Christine Judd, director of Roca Springfield and Holyoke. “The teamwork between our organizations allows us to disrupt cycles of violence and poverty among young people in Hampden County by wrapping both clinical and non-clinical behavioral-health services around them. Roca is thrilled to expand this partnership with RVCC and be able to also offer clinical mental-health services to our high-risk young mothers in Springfield.”