The Counselors Next Door: What Pittsford Youth Services Offers Your Family — and How to Get Started

September 8 is the first day of school in Pittsford. Most families are thinking about bus routes and back-to-school nights. Fewer know that Pittsford Youth Services counseling is already scheduled into PCSD elementary and middle school buildings — and the village office at 4 South Main opens its fall calendar the same week.

57 Years of Quiet Support in the Village

57 Years of Quiet Support in the Village

Pittsford Youth Services was founded in 1969 by a group of concerned residents who believed every family in the community deserved access to professional, confidential, and affordable mental health support. That founding mission has held. PYS now delivers more than 1,800 individual counseling sessions per year, alongside group programs and school presentations reaching hundreds more students across the district.

Licensed social workers are embedded inside PCSD elementary and middle schools, available for individual counseling during the school day. A student who is struggling doesn't have to leave campus, and families don't need to navigate outside referrals or arrange transportation. The same organization runs the village office in the Phoenix Building at 4 South Main Street for families who prefer appointments outside school hours. Most families who could use either don't know both exist.

What They Help With — and What It Costs

What They Help With — and What It Costs

The issues PYS addresses read like an honest inventory of growing up: anxiety, depression, grief and loss, family changes, academic pressure, peer relationships. LGBTQ+ youth support is part of the practice. Crisis intervention is available during district-wide events. Home visits are built into some children's treatment plans.

School-based counseling starts with a referral — a teacher, counselor, or parent can reach out to PYS directly. For the village office, sessions run $75, with payment plans available based on financial need. That combination — a licensed social worker already inside the school building and a community office with a fixed, accessible fee — puts PYS in a different category from searching for a private therapist and waiting months for an opening.

Camp Heartstrings, the Duck Drop, and How Families Get Involved

Camp Heartstrings, the Duck Drop, and How Families Get Involved

Camp Heartstrings / Camp Dreams is a three-day summer grief camp for Pittsford children entering grades 2 through 11 who have lost a loved one. Most families in this community only learn it exists at the moment they need it — which is how grief tends to arrive.

Students in grades 9-12 can join the Youth Advisory Board, earning community service hours while helping plan awareness events for PYS through the school year.

The Duck Drop Derby is PYS's annual fundraiser — rubber ducks racing on the Erie Canal at the Food Truck & Music Fest, next to Carpenter Park. Proceeds fund the counseling sessions, the grief camp, and the social workers in the school buildings. This year it runs September 19 at 4:30 PM.