UVALDE, Texas – The Children’s Bereavement Center of South Texas is constructing a permanent facility to help the children of Uvalde.
In the months since the Robb Elementary tragedy, organizations from San Antonio have stepped up to help, including the Children’s Bereavement Center of South Texas.
“This is our sand tray therapy room. We’ll have a version of this in Uvalde as well,” said Dr. Marian Sokol, executive director of the Children’s Bereavement Center of South Texas.
The rooms of the bereavement center in San Antonio are as different as the children cared for inside of them.
“In this room, we have the seasons. This, again, ties into our theme of — there are seasons of life, and nobody knows how long they’re going to be,” Dr. Sokol said.
Within the first 24 hours of the Robb Elementary tragedy, Sokol and her team were in Uvalde.
“We thought if we open a drop-in center for comfort and consults, as we called it, with child therapists, that we’d leave the door open,” Sokol said. “But within the first few weeks, we have four families say to us, ‘We don’t feel safe here unless the door is locked.'”
They’ve adapted and learned what works in Uvalde and what the community needs.
“I guess that saying about ‘it does take a village,’ it certainly is going to take a village coming together for a long time to help Uvalde,” Sokol said.
Sokol said they’re committed to being there for the families, which is why they’re constructing a permanent facility next to St. Philip’s Episcopal Church in downtown Uvalde.
“There are some amazing plans when you give something to an architect, and it’s a big box that they can draw up, and that’s what happened,” Sokol said.
A new rendering shows how the outside will look, and plans are still being finalized on the inside.
Sokol hopes families in all stages of grief will see this as a place to start healing when they’re ready.
“In Uvalde, it may be longer, and it may take longer to start. But grief doesn’t have a timetable, and neither do we.,” Sokol said.
The Uvalde facility is currently under construction. The church used it as a thrift store before they donated the space.
Dr. Sokol says it should be ready by 2023 with six full-time staffers.
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Tonight on the #NightBeat we are speaking with the @CBCST about the permanent facility they’re constructing in Uvalde. It’ll help children and their families in whatever stage of grief they’re in to get on the path of healing. @ksatnews pic.twitter.com/iZL22MHsF0