The NYU Child Study Center is pleased to announce a bereavement program open to families and children of New York City uniformed officers who perished due to the events of September 11th. The program, funded by a $750,000 grant from The Silver Shield Foundation, supports a component of a larger Child and Family Recovery Program launched in October 2001 by the NYU Child Study Center. The bereavement services and outreach program, which began in February and will continue for three years, offers counseling services to approximately 500 children and adolescents, and their families of firefighters, fire officers, and paramedics of the FDNY and police officers of the New York/New Jersey Port Authority Police Department and the New York City Police Department. To date 100 children have been evaluated and over 25 are enrolled in treatment.

The Silver Shield Foundation was originally established to provide educational scholarships for children of uniformed officers who lost their lives in the line of duty. In addition to the New York/New Jersey Port Authority Police Department, the FDNY and the NYPD, the Foundation also covers state troopers in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, and members of other law enforcement agencies within an approximate 50-mile radius of Manhattan. "Since the events of September 11th, the Silver Shield Foundation made the decision to partner with the NYU Child Study Center to expand our services to provide immediate counseling to the children and spouses who suffered a loss during the terrorist attacks," said James E. Fuchs, president of The Silver Shield Foundation.