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Charis Website: Hub for Care & Counseling

Oct 11, 2016 | UA News

Article by Urban Alliance staff. 

At any given time, 1 in 5 people are struggling with a diagnosable mental illness and 100% of people will struggle with their mental, emotional or relational health at some point in their lives.

In honor of World Mental Health Week, Urban Alliance is helping to raise awareness of mental health issues and mobilize efforts in support of mental health.

Would you know where to turn if you were in need of emotional support? What if you were specifically seeking Christian care? Would you know where to point a friend or family member if they were struggling emotionally?

The Charis website (CharisNetworkCT.org) is a tool, managed by Urban Alliance, that can be used by individuals and organizations to help connect people in need of support to high-quality professional counselors, support groups, and specialized support services offered in Connecticut from a Christian perspective.

The site provides an easy way to browse professional counselor profiles and learn about their qualifications, specialties and what types of insurance they accept, or to find support groups for issues like anger, anxiety, depression, divorce, grief and unemployment. It also lists specialized services for pregnancy and parenting, substance abuse, healing prayer and pastoral care.

Visit, browse and share about the Charis website.

A Charis flyer is also available to help connect to care.

Counselors and care providers can also find resources on the Charis website, including information about the Charis peer consultation group that meets monthly. The purpose of this group is for counselors to provide each other with professional support in their work with clients. The group consists of meetings where members have the opportunity to present cases for discussion and ask questions related to their practice.

Through Charis, Urban Alliance works with churches and organizations to help them communicate about mental health in ways that offer hope and create safe environments where people feel comfortable seeking help. Urban Alliance also equips care providers to respond sensitively and to effectively connect people who are seeking care to appropriate support, so that they can cope well and become emotionally healthy and resilient.

For more information about Charis, contact Angela Colantonio, Urban Alliance’s Director of Implementation, Health & Basic Needs Initiatives, at angela.colantonio@urbanalliance.com or 860.986.7328.

The staff at Urban Alliance are familiar with Pastor Frank because he is a regular attendee to many of the trainings Urban Alliance provides on subjects like domestic violence, addressing childhood trauma, and better counseling techniques. “That’s been so valuable to me to be able to bring that back, not only in my counseling but also in my teaching and preaching ministries, “ shared Termine.

Pastor Frank was also one of the original members of the Micah group, a group of pastors that meets at Urban Alliance to discuss and strategize about challenging issues that face the church today. One of those earlier discussions on justice, incarceration, and returning citizens was particularly memorable. “We all lamented the fact that these men and women were coming out of prison into our churches and just kind of being thrown there,” said Termine, “We could do better than this.” That discussion planted the seeds that eventually led to the creation of Second Chance Churches – an opportunity for churches to provide support and mentoring to returning citizens that continues today.

When we asked Pastor Frank what he would say to another church that was unaware of Urban Alliance, he said, “If you are looking to get out in the community and make a difference in the community, Urban Alliance is a super way to do it. We’re a small church … we can’t do everything. Urban Alliance is a pathway to get our people involved in ministries that are already doing it, doing it well, and just need extra volunteers.”

Pastor Frank Termine’s story embodies many things we are trying to accomplish at Urban Alliance: supporting organizations in the communities they serve with training, resources, and opportunities to make a difference. Pastors and non-profit leaders face a wide range of challenges and, therefore, need a wide range of help and resources. Your support can help turn stories of struggle into stories like you find at Calvary Church.

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