JFK University Community Center Nestles in Downtown Concord

 John F. Kennedy University has moved a community center to downtown Concord, providing an array of counseling, psychological assessment, coaching and educational training services to the community.

The JFK University Community Center opened in early May in the Bank of America building, kitty corner from Todos Santos Plaza, after being housed in a Pleasant Hill business park for 23 years.

“It’s a wonderful step that the university has taken to have the center in the middle of the community in Concord, right across from Todos Santos Plaza, just a few blocks from the BART station,” said Lorie Hill, director of the JFKU Counseling program at the Center.

JFKU Community Center services are offered on a sliding scale that accommodates people’s income level. “We never turn people away because of a lack of money,” said Della Combs, regional director of the Raising Safe Kids program.

Raising Safe Kids is an eight-week violence prevention program that mobilizes communities, professionals and families who want to help protect children from violence before it starts, said Combs.

Raising Safe Kids was developed by the American Psychological Association and teaches parents how to reduce their stress, deal with children’s tantrums and fights, use positive methods of discipline that are right for their child’s age and personality, and keep children safe in environments of Internet, TV and video games.

On July 16, the Center will start a new Raising Safe Kids group for parents and families at the special Father’s Day rate of $5 per week. Groups normally cost $15 a week, said Combs. The Raising Safe Kids program is available in English, Spanish, Japanese, Farsi and Laotian.

“When I first came to this class I thought my children were misbehaving to make my life more difficult,” said one father who participated in Raising Safe Kids. “Now that I know it is normal for children to misbehave because they are learning how to understand the world, how to relate to others and don’t behave like adults, it is easier for me to calm down and teach them how they should behave.”

ACT Raising Safe Kids is in its third year at the Tulare County Jail, helping inmates transition back into family life, Combs said. JFK University is hoping to replicate the program at other jails and prisons in nine Western states.

Among the low-cost mental health services the community center offers in Concord are support for:

• depression, anxiety, grief and divorce;
• substance abuse and addiction recovery;
• youth issues including self-esteem, sexuality and school problems;
• family issues including parenting, conflict and “empty nest” transitions;
• veteran issues including Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and the transition back to civilian life.

Counseling services are provided by JFK University graduate students pursuing degrees in the Doctor of Psychology and Master of Arts in Marriage and Family Therapy programs in the university’s College of Graduate and Professional Studies. The grad students are supervised by licensed clinicians, said Combs.

In the last school year, more than two dozen grad students also provided counseling services in Contra Costa County elementary, middle and secondary schools, including Mount Diablo, West County, Antioch, Pittsburg and Juvenile Hall schools in Martinez. In some cases, the students come to the community center in Concord to continue therapeutic sessions with the grad students during the summer, Hill said.

In the second quarter of 2011, the center will see 250 to 300 clients, plus another 100 or so through the school-based program.

There’s room to grow on the second floor of the Concord building for the new community center, said Hill. And there’s free parking for clients in the Bank of America building at the corner of Willow Pass Road and Mount Diablo Street.

In the next several years, the center intends to expand its services to include career counseling, nutrition coaching, geriatric services, and business and legal consultation.

Pleasant Hill is the main campus of JFK University, which operates counseling centers in Oakland and Sunnyvale.