USF Receives Funding for a National Technical Assistance Center on Youth Transition
In October 2002, The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), a public health agency within the US Department of Health and Human Services, awarded $2.3 million for the Partnerships for Youth Transition initiative, which funds five sites across the nation to develop and implement transition programs for youth with serious emotional disturbance (EBD) as they enter adulthood.
An additional $200,000/year for 3 years has been awarded to the Department of Child and Family Studies (CFS), de la Parte Institute, USF by the Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative Foundation to develop a National Technical Assistance (TA) Center on Youth Transition. The Center will provide and coordinate training and consultation with the five sites to build their capacity in the development, implementation, and enhancement of transition practices, systems, and outcomes for young people with EBD who are between the ages of 14 and 25. The five sites are: the Utah Department of Human Services; Clark County in Vancouver, Washington; P.A.C.T. 4 Families Collaborative in Willmare, Minnesota; the Department of Behavioral and Development Services in Augusta, Maine; and the Allegheny County Human Services Department in Pittsburg, PA.
Within CFS, Hewitt B. “Rusty” Clark (PI) and Nicole Deschênes, (Co-PI and Project Director) have extensive backgrounds in strategic planning, training, technical assistance, and evaluation related to transition issues for young people struggling with mental health challenges. Clark originally developed the Transition to Independence Process (TIP) System. He and Deschênes continue to refine the system through their collaborative program implementation and research efforts.
“ We want to set the occasion for a community of learning to occur within and across sites,” said Rusty Clark. “Our mission is to ensure that the experience, expertise and resources each of the site partners bring to the table will be shared across sites, as well as nationally.” The primary focus of the TA Center will be the provision and coordination of technical assistance, and promotion of information and data sharing across the sites. These activities will assist them in meeting their SAMHSA grant requirements as well as their site goals in establishing a sustainable, effective transition service system.
The TA Center will work with each site to establish a subcommittee entitled the Cross-Site Network for Information Exchange. Mostly through monthly teleconference calls, this network will facilitate the exchange of knowledge between sites and promote brainstorming strategies that might be applicable in solving issues with which other site partners are wrestling. “These discussions will also assist in assessing training and consultation needs for individual sites,” said Deschênes, “thus facilitating the planning for technical assistance from the TA Center personnel, other consultants, or from personnel at one of the other sites.”
Other activities of the TA Center will include the development of a website that will be used to provide descriptions of the TA Center, each site’s project and related goals, a resource toolbox of selected publications, materials, instruments, position openings, grant funding opportunities, and other transition-related information, as well as a bulletin board and chat room for the sites to share information.
The TA Center will also develop and maintain a list of professionals, young adults and parent advocates who have expertise relevant to transition issues and are interested in helping to support communities in the development and implementation of transition service systems. “The young adult and parent advocate consultants may be particularly helpful in assisting agencies and communities with technical assistance in areas such as peer support groups, youth and parent advocacy, parent and youth engagement in the transition planning process, parent/youth mediation, cultural and developmental influences, and young person’s roles in system governance,” said Clark.
Nicole Deschênes and Rusty Clark will travel to each of the sites to learn about sites and their needs, and provide training and technical assistance as required. Additional staff for the TA Center will include a youth coordinator and website manager, an information synthesis and materials developer, as well as an administrative/fiscal assistant.
Rusty Clark and Nicole Deschênes have both expressed their enthusiasm over this “wonderful opportunity to partner with representatives from the community sites, along with leaders from the Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative, the Annie E. Casey foundation, and SAMHSA in developing, implementing and evaluating service systems to improve outcomes for young people with emotional/behavioral difficulties.”
For more information on the National Technical Assistance Center on Youth Transition, contact Nicole Deschênes at 813-974-4493.
The Department of Child and Family Studies (CFS) is a department of the Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute, University of South Florida. The faculty and staff of CFS are committed to enhancing the development, mental health and well-being of children and families through leadership in integrating research, theory & practice.