Email Release in conjunction with Support Group Awareness Month
CCSR News Release
For January Release
CCSR Support Group Clearinghouse
“The first time a parent walked into my office with tears running down her cheek saying she didn’t have any place to go
and she had a secret she couldn’t tell everyone,” said Brian Sutton, Wichita Chapter President of Parents Families and
Friends of Lesbian and Gays (PFLAG), “Then looking at me and saying ‘My son is gay and I don’t know what to do.’ I knew
how important it was for PFLAG to be here in Wichita.”
There are issues that affect us every day from facing the scrutiny of being homosexual or coping with a loved one battling
cancer. Everyone needs someone to talk to that understands their issues or concerns; someone to say “I know what you
mean.” That’s where support groups come in.
Wichita State’s Center for Community Support and Research (CCSR), founded in 1984 by local social worker Evelyn Middlestadt, originally served as a clearinghouse for support groups. The idea for CCSR came about when Middlestadt, who
at the time dealt with adoptions of special needs children, got a group of parents together to voice their worries and
concerns about how best to help the children they adopted as their own. It was at that point when Middelstadt saw
the parents she brought together began to talk and offer each other tips and advice about the things that work for their
children. Middlestadt became intrigued by self-help groups and began collecting lists of every support group in town.
Today CCSR’s online database contains over 2,500 local and national support groups from PFLAG to Binge Eating Disorder
Association (BEDA). Governor Sam Brownback has proclaimed January 2014 as Support Group Awareness Month.
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For more Information:
Angela Gaughan
Kelsey Haynes
Support Group Project Specialist
CCSR Communication Intern
316-978-5496
316-210-7033
[email protected][email protected]