SAVE THE DATE
Annual Conference
May 1st-2nd, 2022
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Marriott Albany
189 Wolf Rd,
Albany, NY 12205
Family & Youth Scholarship applications
are available now!
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Keynote Speaker
Marc Brackett, Ph.D.
Marc, is the founding director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and a professor in the Child Study Center at Yale University. His research focuses on the role of emotional intelligence in learning, decision making, creativity, relationships, health, and performance. He has published over 150 scholarly articles, received numerous awards, and serves on a number of boards, including CASEL. Marc is the lead developer of RULER, an evidence-based approach to SEL that has been adopted by nearly 3,000 schools across the United States and in other countries. Marc is the author of the bestselling book, Permission to Feel, which is translated into 22 languages.
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March, 2022
'The Voice' is Families Together in New York State's monthly newsletter with information that is important to families, and youth across the State of New York.
For further information visit our website:
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BUFFY MARCIL
Buffy is a Peer Family Support Specialist at Families First in Essex County, Inc. She has been in this position for 13 years. She is the parent of two daughters, one teen and one young adult. One of her daughters struggled in school with anxiety, ADHD and a learning disability. Buffy has been a staunch advocate and support for her throughout her life. Buffy is an active participant in many aspects of work at Families First including working directly with not just the families but with the children also. She feels that it’s important for providers to get to know the children to support the parents to ensure success in reaching their goals. She also has many years of experience running the Adirondack Chapter of Families Together in NYS.
Fun Fact----She is an avid jogger that has participated in numerous 5k’s and accomplished her goal of a ½ marathon!
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The 2022 New York State What's Great in Our State (WGiOS) celebration will be held on May 3. 2022, from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the Glen Sanders Mansion in Scotia, New York. The event program will include a keynote, workshops and an opportunity to celebrate those who are working hard to produce positive outcomes for children, youth, young adults and families.
Our annual recognition focuses on the following six categories:
- Youth/Young Adult
- Family/Caregiver
- Lifetime
- Systems of Care Community
- Organization or Community Group
- School/School District
SAVE THE DATE,
Registration will open shortly. .
About the Planning Committee
The Planning Committee is comprised of 16 state agencies and not-for-profit organizations which are committed to advancing children’s mental health. Through this event, the committee works collaboratively to promote the importance of children’s mental health as a necessary component of children’s overall health.
Families Together is honored to be part of this committee.
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March is Women's History Month
Families Together is celebrating the Power of Women and recognizing trailblazers that transform systems & change lives.
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FANS Technical Assistance Office Hours
Multiple Dates
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Mental Health 101
Awareness Training
Thursday, March 24, 2022
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Finding Clarity:
Decluttering your mind & space
Thursday, March 31st, 2022
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Restorative Justice Collaborative Discussion
April 20th & 22nd, 2022
12:00 - 2:00 PM
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University of
Youth Power
June 24th - 27th, 2022
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Registration information coming soon
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MEET OUR PARTNER...
Let us introduce you
to the new,
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF
LONG ISLAND
FAMILIES TOGETHER
Andrea Stolz
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Families Together in New York State, along with various partnering organizations in the region, are hiring several parent and youth advisors in the western region of New York. For job descriptions and more information, click below.
Applicants are encouraged to send resumes to the participating organizations of their choosing. You will find instructions on how to do so in each toggle.
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The following vacancies are available:
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Hillside Children's Center
- Youth Peer Advocate
- Family Peer Advocate
- Supervisor-Family Advocate
New Directions
Intandem
Compeer Rochester
Family Peer Mentor
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AspireHope NY
- Family Engagement Specialist
- Peer Support Specialist
- Youth Peer Advocate
- and more!
Families together in New York State
- Family Peer Engagement Advocate
- Youth Power Youth Peer Advocate
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ACTION ALERT: No Raise the Age Roll Backs
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Dear Family and Youth Network,
Last week, the Raise the Age NY coalition shared the news about a plan to roll back New York’s Raise the Age to permit more 16 and 17-year-olds to be prosecuted as adults – a return to unsound and racially biased policies that failed to keep young people or communities safe when we used them in the past.
Starting immediately and continuing throughout the week, we need your help to prevent these rollbacks, which will harm our youth and communities and do not address the causes of gun violence.
We’re asking you to do three things:
2.) Individuals: Please take a minute the following Action Alert to alert your legislators and the Governor. Everything you need to send messages and make the calls is here: raisetheageny.org/act/
We need your voice to fight against any proposed rollbacks that seek to undo much-needed progress. Please stay tuned to RaisetheAgeNY.org, @RaisetheAgeNY for more ways to get involved – and please share your calls to action as well.
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Family Empowerment Month A Resounding Success!
All of February, Families Together in NYS held our annual policy advocacy event in the form of Family Empowerment Month 2022. Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, we switched to a virtual environment in 2021. A silver lining of this switch was that we had the opportunity to experiment with our format. This led to our virtual townhalls, which we continued and improved in 2022.
FTNYS held these townhalls with our members and various elected leaders who have direct roles in the systems we advocate within. This includes Mental Health, Addiction, Education, Youth Justice, Child Welfare, and Developmental Disabilities. We would like to thank every one of our members who shared their experience and asked questions, and the elected leaders who took time out of their busy schedules to listen to family and youth voice on the systems that impact us every day. We look forward to continuing these conversations and working together to create positive change.
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Solutions not Suspensions Urges Governor Hochul to Pass Bill
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The Solutions Not Suspensions campaign, of which FTNYS is a proud partner, has been calling for the move away from ineffective and discriminatory exclusionary discipline practices, such as suspensions. Not only have these practices been found to be ineffective, but they also have a disproportionate negative effect on children of color and children with disabilities. SNS has pushed for the passing of the Solutions Not
Suspensions Act (A.5197/ S.7198), which would address many of these issues.
SNS has sent a letter to governor Hochul commending her for mentioning disciplinary reform in the State of the State. However, we are also calling on her to commit to passing this bill and meeting with the SNS campaign to discuss the matter further. When the time comes, the governor must sign this bill to end these harmful practices and protect New York students.
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Setting the Record Straight on the MCO Competitive Bid Proposal
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FTNYS was one of 16 statewide and regional associations/coalitions that signed onto a letter representing Medicaid beneficiaries and the providers that serve them. In the letter, we urged support in the executive budget proposal Part P in the HMH budget bill that would require NYS to utilize a Competitive Bid Procurement process to identify Managed Care Organizations (MCOs) the state will employ to manage these benefits.
Since that letter was sent, there are some concerns that have been raised that we would like to address. The full list is linked below, but some of them include
- Concern: Plan changes means care recipients will lose their provider/practitioner
- Response: Plans change their networks all the time, often without adequate warning to plan members, and with only minimal oversight by state regulators. Part P proposes requirements for selected vendors including that plans expand their networks regionally and requires transition periods for continued coverage while changes are being made pursuant to the new competitive bid process. So not only will consumers largely be able to retain their preferred providers, but beneficiaries will have more choices and likely more opportunities for better care management.
- Concern: The DOH is understaffed, and executing a procurement would be a disaster
- Response: The State plans to add additional staff at DoH and to subcontract with outside experts to implement and support the procurement. To make a change we must begin by adding meaningful accountability and consumer protections.
- Concern: Procurement will lead to lengthy, costly lawsuits brought by plans which lose business
- Response: The procurement process must be implemented in a way that centers on integrity and fairness. States that have upheld transparency during procurement have not incurred damaging litigation. The threat associated with multi-billion-dollar companies suing NYS because they can no longer extract enormous wealth from taxpayers isn’t a reason to avoid procurement.
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Biden Administration to Announce Strategy to Address National Mental Health Crisis
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As part of his federal agenda and first State of the Union Address, President Biden announced a strategy to address the national mental health crisis facing the United States. The White House has released a full fact sheet full of studies quantifying the problems faced by Americans and proposed solutions by his administration, which is linked below. Some highlights that are worth noting are the emphasis on youth and how the crisis is affecting them, the acknowledgment that this was a problem before the COVID-19 pandemic, and a commitment to strengthening our mental health system capacity and workforce.
Families Together in NYS applauds the Biden Administration for including both acknowledgment of the mental health problems and solutions in his agenda and first State of the Union of his presidency. We urge commitment and immediate action on these ideas and policies from both the White House and Congress going forward on the federal level so that we can help the youth and families of New York and America at large.
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Fund Mental Health and Addiction Services: Contact Your Lawmakers Today!
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New Yorkers lack appropriate access to mental health and substance use care today because the State has repeatedly failed to provide adequate funding for these essential services in the past. Send a letter today asking the Legislature to include the 5.4% COLA with amendments and $500 million for workforce, service, and support in the final SFY 2022-23 enacted budget. Below is a link to easily send this letter to lawmakers, as well as the full letter itself.
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Senate & Assembly Put forth One-House Budgets
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On Monday, March 14, 2022, the Senate and Assembly passed their-hone house budgets, which outline their respective priorities and areas where the houses agree or disagree with the Executive budget proposal. The Senate and Assembly have established joint budget conference committees to resolve remaining differences in time for passage of a budget by the April 1st deadline.
Below there is a link to a detailed report of what is in the budgets, and what the differences are. Overall, FTNYS is pleased with this budget although there is always room for improvement. Some highlights include...
- A cost of living adjustment for mental health workers in both budgets, with the senate supplying a 5.4 both this year and next and the assembly supplying an 11% increase this year.
- The Senate advancing language to establish parity for health care services delivered via telehealth and expand the list of telehealth providers (S.5505 and S.6846-A).
- The Assembly added reporting and transparency measures including requiring that the Department of Health, effective April 1, 2022, post on its website the list of managed care providers that provided a recovery of premiums going back to 2013.
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Addressing the COVID-19
Delta Surge
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Resources for families affected by COVID-19; Prioritizing mental and physical health while staying home.
Families Together is here to help.
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2021 FTNYS Digital Advocacy Center
Stay up-to-date with all our advocacy efforts and use emails, social media, and phone calls. We might have to stay home, but our advocacy doesn't have to.
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Welcome to the team, Justice Walcott! Justice will serve as our new DEI Youth Engagement Specialist.
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Save the Date for UYP 2022!
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More information coming soon!
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AVAILABLE POSITION:
TEMPORARY- Part-time - Western Region Youth Partner
APPLICATION PROCESS: Applicants must send a resume with a formal cover letter, outlining their lived experience as a youth as described in the qualifications above, to employment@ftnys.org in order to be considered.
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Join the Youth Power Advisory Council
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Youth Peer Meetings Are Here for You!
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Join Our Peer Supervisors Meetings
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Building on the Strengths of Youth Who Have Endured Hardship
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Resilience is relatively well-defined, generally, as the ability to adapt in the face of adversity. When resilience is promoted, young people are better able to survive in difficult times and thrive in good times. Rather than an individual trait, it is a dynamic process that involves individual strengths that develop through relationships with others.
In this webinar Dr. Ken Ginsburg will share his thoughts on resilience in youth. Dr. Ginsburg has used his practice experience to create evidence-informed interventions and resources to help providers foster resilience in teens and families. He will focus on three areas: (1) the power of relationships, (2) trauma sensitive practice, and (3) strength-based communication.
Wednesday, March 30th, 2022
12:00-1:30pm
Presenter: Dr. Kenneth Ginsburg, MD, MS
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Family Connections:
A virtual community for parents and caregivers
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Hosted by the National Family Support Technical Assistance Center, “Family Connections” is a virtual community for parents and caregivers who support loved ones facing substance use and/or mental health challenges. Families report they need credible resources, guidance on accessing help, and the opportunity to connect with others facing similar challenges. Monthly gatherings will focus on a specific topic, provide tips and tools, and offer the opportunity to network with other families.
Family Connections take place the first Thursday of every month at 1:30 p.m. ET.
Join the NFSTAC for the April discussion topic “Wrapping Around Our Children with Complex Needs” on Thursday, April 7th from 1:30 - 2:30pm.
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Family Peer Advocates Spotlight
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"We Want to Help Families
in Need"
Only a few years ago, Jovannie Canales and Melisa Rivera felt overwhelmed with concern for their son. Today, he’s on a better path—and his parents were so inspired by the support he received that they’re bringing that support to other families in need, every day.
Every parent only wants the best for their child, and Melisa will never forget the day a Hillside Family Peer Advocate came to their home, and listened. “She told us about how Hillside could help our family and our child,” Melisa remembers. “She was understanding and supportive of us, from day one. She gave us hope.”
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Access to quality, affordable health insurance is particularly important as we continue to confront a global pandemic. Nearly 99% of NY State of Health enrollees qualify for free or low-cost insurance that covers important benefits like doctor visits, mental health services, prescriptions and more. Enrollment for 2022 health coverage is still open for Qualified Health Plans through NY State of Health. Enrollment for Medicaid, Child Health Plus and Essential Plan is open year-round. Financial help through the American Rescue Plan remains available through 2022 to help lower premium costs for eligible New Yorkers. Stay Connected to NY State of Health to avoid missing important health insurance updates.
Text START to 1-866-988-0327 to subscribe.
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New York’s FREE and confidential COVID-19 Emotional Support Helpline
1-844-863-9314
8:00am – 10:00pm / 7 Days per week
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Camp Get-A-Way is looking to add Members to their Board!
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For more information contact Ken Tangel, President at;
(585) 402-1094 or terebinthcounseling@gmail.com
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EMPOWERING FAMILIES. COORDINATING SYSTEMS.
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