Mission
To see Latinos heal, grow, and thrive, by providing behavioral health and resources that empower individuals and families.
Vision
We envision a community where Latinos are healthy, thriving, and contributing to society.
Values
Amanecer Counseling & Resource Center’s core values serve as the pillars for the day-to-day
operations. They govern how we work, behave and interact.
Insight:
Leveraging an understanding of the core needs of clients – and a long record of success – our professionals deliver culturally responsive services that help our community members heal and thrive.
Inclusivity:
Our center welcomes the entire community, focuses on the holistic needs of the entire family, and offers care with compassion and respect.
Integrity:
Our dedicated counselors and guides work as a team to provide wrap-around support while following the highest ethical standards.
History
In 2003, Sister Theresa founded a small outreach program at St. Paul’s Church in Wilmington Delaware, working with children, adults, and families facing mental and behavioral challenges. Working long hours alone, she grew the program into a 501(c)3 nonprofit, incorporated in 2010 as the Family Counseling Center of St. Paul’s.
The Center grew into Amanacer Counseling & Resource Center in 2021.
Founder
Amanecer founder nurtures compassionate, empathetic, and genuine approach to serving others
Our founder, Sister Theresa Marie Elitz was born and raised in
Philadelphia. She attended St. Hubert’s High School in Northeast
Philadelphia. After working in the business world, she joined the Order of the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia. Sister earned her degree in nursing, and worked as an RN in North and Central America, and the Caribbean. She went back to school to become a licensed mental health therapist and continued to work with Latinos in the United States.
Sister Theresa has instilled some very important values, which our team has embraced, and which has helped shape the culture at Amanecer. Our compassionate, holistic approach to care – we call it Heal with Love or Con Amor Sanamos – is part of our bilingual, culturally competent mental and behavioral health counseling, parenting skills training, and peer supervision and consulting programs. A compassionate, empathetic, and genuine approach to others is a prerequisite, and is so important in the eyes and hearts of the people who walk through our doors.
She is passionate about mental health, especially how it affects behavior and decision-making. Addressing the root issues is key to helping prevent these traumatic events.
She also shares a concern regarding the severe shortage of bilingual, culturally competent mental health therapists in Delaware and across the United States. Sister Theresa has supervised and trained many therapists. Her peer supervision model is helping Amanecer forge relationships with universities and colleges to recruit, train, supervise, and employ master level students who are candidates to become licensed, culturally competent mental health therapists.
Sister Theresa has always emphasized accessibility. Our community engagement program proactively reaches out to primary healthcare systems, physicians’ offices, schools, faith-based entities, and other community-focused organizations to reach children, adults, and families where they are.
She also recognizes the need to integrate mental health within the primary care arena. Mental health is
a vital component of healthcare. Our team looks at a person’s health holistically, and we believe mental health should be a part of the total system, not a silo.
Our team is blessed and grateful to work with her. Sister Theresa is a tireless direct-care worker and advocate. She provides a caring and learning environment. And she connects with the people in our community. We are lucky colleagues!
She has built a team driven by empathy and compassion for the people in our community. You can see the passion in her eyes for this work . . . and there is much work to be done.
Rob McCreary – Executive Director and Development/Fundraising Officer