Centerstone presents at Illinois School Counselors Association Conference

Centerstone presented at the Illinois School Counselors Association Conference earlier this month.

The two-day state conference is a forum for in-depth school counseling-related educational sessions. It included breakout sessions, general sessions and networking with school counselors, administrators and other professionals in the state to discover best practices in the field. The conference was held in Tinley Park.

Centerstone staff presented “Systems of Care at Work: Putting Systems of Care Principles into Community and School Partnerships” during the conference. The presentation focuses on the Building a System of Care within a community to address mental health disparities and gaps in services, and to address the overall needs of children and families.

“Work in a system of care includes collaboration between not only mental health agencies and partners, but also with schools, children, and families,” said Megan Ragan, grant coordinator for Centerstone’s Trauma, Treatment and Training program. “Centerstone has worked extensively with its surrounding communities to bridge gaps in services and supports to address the needs of children and families through several grant opportunities.”

The panel of experts who provided the presentation included:

• Niki Grajewski, clinical manager at Centerstone
  • Grajewski is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in Illinois with a Master’s Degree in Social Work from the University of Illinois – Champaign–Urbana. She has been working with children and families in community mental health, residential, and child welfare settings for more than 17 years. Specializations include the care and wellness of young people who have experienced early childhood trauma, behavioral interventions, positive supervision to care providers, training and education, and supporting children and families in a collaborative system of care mental health model.
• Taylor Marks, director of Centerstone’s Youth & Family Tree and Flourish programs
  • Marks is an Illinois Licensed Clinical Social Worker with a Master’s Degree in Social Work from Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville. She currently works as the Project Director for three federally-funded grants at Centerstone. She has experience working with youth who are homeless, children and families with behavioral and mental health disorders, families in the child welfare system to reunite families safely, and adolescents and young adults who use substances.  Marks has spent the last few years working with community partners to successfully implement federal grants to serve more families and children and to improve the services provided.
• Megan Ragan
  • Megan Ragan has accrued more than 250 hours of training in the subject of childhood trauma, traumatic stress, and other related subjects. Ragan has 10 years’ experience in child-serving systems and graduated with her Masters of Social Work from Louisiana State University in August 2021. Ragan is certified and experienced in multiple therapeutic modalities including Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing, Trauma-focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Parent Child Interaction Therapy, Child Parent Psychotherapy, and Managing Adaptive Practices Therapy. When Ragan is not providing direct service support to children and families, she is training on the subject of childhood trauma.

To access Centerstone’s presentation, visit https://bit.ly/SoCPP21. For more information about this presentation, contact Megan Ragan or Taylor Marks.