SAN ANTONIO — One San Antonio-based non-profit is raising money to establish a more permanent presence in Uvalde, where a community remains overwhelmed with grief after the mass shooting at Robb Elementary two weeks ago.
“I do think it has to be overwhelming for a parent and family that was just expecting normalcy and summer vacation maybe, so life has changed forever in the town of Uvalde,” said Dr. Marian Sokol, Executive Director of the Children’s Bereavement Center of South Texas.
The non-profit is one of several organizations providing a host of services to people in Uvalde following the worst school mass shooting in Texas history.
The Children’s Bereavement Center of South Texas is raising $2.4 million to go toward opening a center in Uvalde.
The five-year operating budget includes real estate, staff salaries and training for CBCST in Uvalde.
Assistance includes offering a center for free grief support programs to community members living with grief and providing training to Uvalde school teachers and counselors.
“We’ve been providing training for the summer school teachers, education for counselors and staff and we’ll continue to support the school. We have our counselors there today at a drop-in center and we’ll be doing that this summer,” Sokol said.
Sokol stressed it can take months and even years to properly cope with such trauma. The grieving process has no concrete timeline. The Children’s Bereavement Center of South Texas.
“Individual counseling, peer-support groups, camps for children, grief support in the schools, that’s what we do in San Antonio and in the valley and that’s what we anticipate doing in Uvalde as well,” Sokol said.
The Uvalde center for comfort and consultation services is a 221 North Getty St. near town square. To learn more about the Children's Bereavement Center of South Texas and the fundraising effort for a Uvalde facility, go here.
"I’m sad and grateful there are a lot of wonderful people there who have been on the frontlines since day one who are really exhausted. We plan to be there for the long term so our job in some ways is just beginning,” Sokol said.