Macari Family Center moves into new digs

A ribbon cutting ceremony marked the opening of The Macari Family Center at its new premises at 140-15B Sanford Avenue, Flushing on Tuesday, November 21. The new premises, which are bright, clean and welcoming, represent both a new beginning and the continuation of decades of services to children and families in the Flushing area.
Established in 1953, The Child Center of New York's mission is to promote the emotional well-being of children and their families. The Center provides counseling for children, adolescents and parents experiencing problems adjusting to life in a new country, depression, acting out behavior and substance use. The Center intervenes to protect children from abuse and neglect. They visit homes to safeguard children and youth who have thoughts of harming themselves or others.
The Center, formerly known as Queens Child Guidance Center, is an independent not-for-profit whose staff of 400 sees 12,000 clients per year in four clinics on the premises, as well as in additional facilities located throughout Queens. The Stanford Avenue Clinics include:
The Arnold Frankle Clinic of Flushing which provides supportive counseling to children, youth and families;
Asian Outreach specializing in meeting the needs of Asian families and the
Trude Weishaupt Clinic and Sonia Stumpf Clinic which serve children at risk of abuse and neglect.
The bulk of the clinics' clients are referred from schools because of acting out behavior in the classroom or on school grounds. &#8220The education system can only deal with a small part of their needs, they're educational, not therapeutic organizations after all, and so can't cope. Add to this parents who are all working . . . ,” said Linda Henly, the Center's Director of Development and External Affairs. She said the client base is growing by five to nine percent per year. &#8220That's a lot of clients!”
The Clinic accepts all insurance including Child Health Plus and Medicaid.
This facility is made possible through support from the Macari Family who were represented at the ceremony by Joe Macari, his wife Kit and daughter Diane. Other major benefactors include The Robin Hood Foundation, and The Muss Organization represented by Joshua Muss.