Larry Rein - SF 100

Florida’s First Lady Casey DeSantis this week announced that the Department of Children and Families has received a $5 million federal emergency grant to expand crisis counseling services through the state’s network of 2-1-1 crisis helplines. Obviously, a wonderful example of the state bringing much needed resources to local communities at an especially critical time, as the continuing pandemic creates unimagined stress and anxiety for us all. Maximizing this investment will, however, require hiring and training qualified staff and intelligently monitoring their effectiveness. Hopefully, we might then discover a model worthy of continued local investment well beyond the current emergency.