TRAVERSE CITY — The Traverse Bay Children’s Advocacy Center reports growth and continuing expansion of trauma services, noting more than 67 percent of its American Rescue Plan Act award has been used so far.
The center continues to utilize the $700,000 award granted by Grand Traverse County in December 2022 to build on its trauma services and improve their reach throughout northwestern Michigan.
The center, serving six counties and the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, provides free forensic, counseling and prevention services to children and families who have experienced abuse. A combination of funding sources for the center stem from state and federal grants, including significant contributions from private donors throughout northern Michigan.
The center’s CEO Lander Bachert said the ARPA funding has been instrumental in growing the center’s services and staff. Grand Traverse County officials listed in their monthly ARPA status report that the center has spent just over $473,230 — a little over 67 percent — of their total award. Recipients have until December 2026 to spend the full amount.
“We have a robust team,” Bachert said, noting that the center now employs four full-time therapists, a part-time therapist and a part-time director of clinical services that handle trauma services directly.
“We started off with one, and then we went to two,” Lisa Lynch-Witham, the center’s director of operations, said of the additions to their licensed therapy services. “For many years, we just had two.”
Bachert, who stepped into the role in March 2024, joined the center’s leadership after a tumultuous period that embroiled the center in controversy throughout 2023. Issues arose among the center’s leadership regarding financial solvency and the departure of Grand Traverse County Chief Prosecuting Attorney Noelle Moeggenberg from the center’s board.
According to Bachert, the ARPA funding has been a piece of the puzzle that has helped solidify the center since those changes.
“It’s to boost and solidify (services),” she said. “Also because children and non-offending caregivers can access therapy or clinical services at no cost for eternity, essentially.”
Bachert highlighted that out of the center’s $1.4 million annual budget, more than $1.2 million of those funds are staffing costs.
“Our counseling team right now is one of the best-trained clinical teams available, not just in our county, but in the state,” she said. “We’ve been able to give folks wages that are commensurate to private practice so that we don’t lose them, reducing turnover. We’ve had 0 percent turnover this year.”
The CEO said the ARPA funding has also allowed for the team to reach more clients efficiently, too.
“We added a staff member this summer, pulling our waitlist down to the lowest it’s been almost ever,” Bachert said. “Last year, there were close to 60 or 70 folks on our waitlist.”
Bachert and Lynch-Witham both agreed that any growth for mental health services helps the region and individual communities as a whole, especially for families and children traumatized from abuse.
“We have the research to prove that children and caregivers who receive therapy and who do the hard work and take the time to heal are less likely to offend or to experience harm again,” Bachert said, adding that the ARPA award helps the center provide that level of care.
“And that was its purpose, as I understand it,” she added. “To build upon what we knew was possible if we had the funding. And now that we have the funding and we’ve created this incredible service with talented professionals that we can see the impacts.”
Bachert and Lynch-Witham were confident the remaining ARPA award — around $226,770, according to the county’s Oct. 28 status report — would be utilized before the December 2026 deadline, stressing that the work needs to continue even after funding sources run out.
“It’s vital, but also it only exists when people prioritize it, right?” Bachert said. “And we’re working to figure out more sustainable ways to prioritize the children that we serve.
“The important thing for folks to know is we need to here right now, unfortunately. … We are keeping that really close to heart right now and are hoping for some systemic changes that can better support people because when things are rocky — socially, economically and politically — people tend to take it out on kids. … We’re here to help people, and take care of people. We very are very much part of the ecosystem of our communities.”