School for girls gets support

Offering hope to those in crisis

By Erick Slattery | Manor Ink

Kenoza Lake, NY – A new resource for middle-school-aged girls is on the horizon, offering hope for families searching for help in the face of mental health struggles. EverGreen Meadow Academy, slated to be built next year in the Rock Hill area, will be a sanctuary and a lifeline for girls 10 to 13 years old facing crises such as self-harm, suicidal thoughts and other challenges.

Founder of EverGreen Meadow Academy Stacey Millman is looking to create a healthy environment to offer care and healing. “You take a child in crisis and place them in a nurturing setting – that’s essential to healing,” Millman said. “We want to build a place where food is medicine, nature is therapy, and girls can find their way back to wholeness.”

Millman spoke at a reception in August for supporters, advocates and leading philanthropists to inform people about the EverGreen’s plans and celebrate the community partnerships driving the project. Held at Kenoza Hall and co-sponsored by Foster Supply Hospitality, the Bonacic Family Foundation and the Community Foundation of Orange & Sullivan, Millman was joined by others expressing optimism that EverGreen will not only serve girls and their families in New York State, but will also serve as a model for similar institutions.

Moving ahead with plans for the school

Propelling the plans for the Academy is a major contribution from Center for Discovery, which granted EverGreen Meadow Academy 24 acres of land in Rock Hill. Center for Discovery’s longtime leader Patrick Dollard further endorsed EverGreen’s plans at the August reception. Dollard spoke passionately about the history of care in Sullivan County and the significance of locating the new facility in Rock Hill.

“The property is meaningful because it’s where the Center for Discovery began,” Dollard explained. “Back then, we were fighting stigmas and ignorance. Today, with adolescent mental health, we’re still fighting shame, embarrassment and a lack of resources. Families are suffering because residential care options are almost nonexistent in New York.”

He called the EverGreen project doable and compared its potential to the early days of the Center for Discovery, which grew from a 10-bed house to become the state’s largest pediatric provider.

EverGreen is helping girls now

While the EverGreen’s 24-bed residential campus is still in development, the Academy’s work is already underway to help girls before their struggles escalate. As of now, there are outpatient therapy/empowerment groups operated by EverGreen in Poughkeepsie, the Bronx, Fallsburg and Yonkers. They are currently working on starting one in Kingston and are exploring a new group in Livingston Manor. These programs can be hosted in or outside of school and are offered at no cost. “Not everyone has good insurance and or money that is available to them that they can get the resources they need,” said EverGreen’s Executive Director Adrienne Jensen.

Millman and Jensen are working to raise about $9 million toward the approximate $30 million they still need to invest in the physical campus. They and the community partners on board are excited that EverGreen Meadow Academy is more than a school – it is a promise of safety, dignity and care for some of our most vulnerable children and their families as they navigate the choppy waters of adolescent mental health.