In recent years, families on Staten Island have been deeply affected by substance use disorder, especially the opioid crisis, which has brought with it a rate of overdose deaths 170% higher than the national average. When a loved one struggles, the whole family feels the impact—and children are often the most vulnerable.
That’s why the YMCA’s Counseling Service provides care, support, and resources that help families navigate these challenges with compassion and hope. Through treatment services, counseling, and prevention programs, the YMCA works to reduce stigma and ensure that no family feels alone in this journey.
Little Steps is a shining example of how the YMCA supports Staten Island families. Since 1989, Little Steps has used expressive art, play, role-playing, and other therapeutic techniques to meet the needs of young people ages 5 to 17. The program empowers children to understand that they are not the cause of their family members’ struggles. While they cannot control or cure their loved ones’ substance use disorder, they can learn healthy ways to cope and thrive.
The program’s philosophy is simple: children experience life on an emotional level and often express themselves through action. That’s why therapy at the YMCA’s Counseling Service is active, expressive, experiential, and, above all, supportive.
In groups of children around their own age, Little Steps participants learn that substance use is a medical condition—one they didn’t cause and can’t control, but one they can manage their response to. Children practice skills like trusting themselves, speaking openly, setting boundaries, making positive choices, being assertive, building friendships, and identifying and expressing their feelings. Above all, Little Steps reinforces each child’s sense of self-worth and resilience.
Little Steps is designed for children with a family history of substance use and at least one of the following: behavior or mood changes, aggression, anger, depression, anxiety, academic challenges, low self-esteem, perfectionism, oppositional behavior, hyperactivity, physical complaints, or social withdrawal.
The YMCA believes that early intervention is the key to helping kids build protective factors and decrease risk factors—reducing the likelihood of future substance use. Through Little Steps, children gain tools to recognize and shift patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving that developed in response to their family member’s struggles.
If you know a child who could benefit from Little Steps’ positive support, contact the YMCA’s Counseling Service at 718-948-3232 to schedule an intake appointment.
SPONSORED POST BY YMCA COUNSELING SERVICES
