The Poughkeepsie City School District had to deal with shootings near schools and other forms of violence within school walls. City and county leaders responded by bringing more mental health resources into schools to help fix the situation.

Now, the school district will get an added boost to expand their mental health resources. The district was awarded a $2.3 million grant to expand its mental health support for students and families.

"Many of our community members have been subjected to a lot of community-based violence," said Superintendent Dr. Eric Jay Rosser.

On Tuesday, Poughkeepsie Police Chief Tom Pape said the city was experiencing a level of gun violence it hadn’t seen in decades. School district leaders believe that violence could affect the mental health of Poughkeepsie’s kids.

"Students who have social emotional needs, social emotional needs many times need to be addressed before a student can even focus on a high-quality education," said Rosser.

The district received a $2.3 million state grant to create two social emotional resource centers in collaboration with Astor Services for Children and Families. One center will be located at the high school and one at the middle school.

"Our students who are in great need will be able to access therapeutic services during the day, but what's powerful about this opportunity is that it will also provide support services to our students beyond the four walls that we call school," said Rosser.

Poughkeepsie mom of three students Tashika White is skeptical that students will actually use the resources.

"The mental health of our children is very important, but I do feel with them being the individuals they are age-wise, I don't think it would be as productive as they think that it would be," said White.

The grant will also allow the district to educate parents and families about mental health and what to look out for in their children.

"To make sure that our parents have an understanding of the implications of trauma and what trauma means to the social emotional well-being of our students," said Rosser.

"I think it would be beneficial to have more people aware of what to look out for and what not to look out for, but we all have to comprehend that there's a lot of adults that are still stuck in a teenage phase," said White.

White said she wishes the district would dedicate more funding to security in schools and recreational activities.

"If you were to put the mental assistance within that recreation and have coaches or whoever it is there while they're doing their recreation, I think they'll receive it way better versus forcing them to go into an office at school," said White.

In addition to the creation of the two resource centers, all staff members have received trauma-informed training, and each school will have a crisis intervention specialist.

The district said there is additional funding for recreational activities that is separate from the mental health grant, and they have made a large investment in arts education.

The district also teams up with community-based organizations to provide afterschool activities.