Sacramento City Unified School District (SCUSD) is improving the way it delivers critically important services to students and families by opening an innovative new “one-stop” support center in the former Genesis High School building.

The “Connect Center” will centralize such services as crisis intervention, mental health counseling and health insurance enrollment — providing a gateway to support for parents and kids.

The Connect Center will be opened with a reception at 3:30 p.m. on Monday, May 9. The center is located at 5601 47th Ave.

“This new center will streamline services and ensure equitable access to all of our students,” said Superintendent Raymond. “This is important because healthy students enjoy school more, miss fewer days of school and perform better in class. As we are a business of teaching and learning, having healthier students benefits our bottom line.”

SCUSD serves 48,000 students spread throughout 82 campuses. Almost 70 percent of students qualify for a free- or reduced-price lunch – the federal poverty threshold. The new Connect Center will improve access to services that address a variety of needs, including: Information and referral Assessment and evaluation Service coordination Individual and family counseling Youth and parent groups Training and education

Crisis intervention Health Insurance Enrollment

The idea for the Connect Center emerged as part of a two-year planning process funded by The California Endowment to develop a fully integrated, district-wide approach to serving the mental health needs of students. During this planning process, the idea of a central youth and family resource center emerged as a focal point for creating a seamless system of support services for all students.

The idea for the Connect Center emerged not only in response to the high level of need present in the SCUSD community, but because schools in this district vary significantly in their capacity to address the social, emotional and health issues of students and families. While 19 SCUSD campuses have school-based youth and family resource centers, the remaining schools must rely on their own limited resources to address the many and varied needs of their students and families.

The County of Sacramento and several nonprofit community organizations are partners in the Connect Center, including Cover the Kids, Panacea Services, River Oak Center for Children and Teachers for Healthy Kids.