Each quarter, the Pacific Southwest MHTTC is excited to share with you Youth & Young Adults Now: Vision, Voice, and Ventures!

Our Center has a special focus on supporting youth and young adults (YYA) of transition age. The transition to adulthood is an important time in young people’s lives—a time for new independence, new challenges, and new opportunities for growth. It’s also a crucial time to support young people who are living with mental health challenges, who are involved in youth-serving systems, or who are at increased chance of developing mental health needs.

When we amplify YYA voice, choice, and leadership, we create space for them to thrive.

Our YYA Team Leads, Oriana Ides and Evelyn Clark, guide us in this work and develop each issue of Youth & Young Adults Now. We welcome you to join Oriana for upcoming sessions of Aging Out or Growing Together? Flipping the Youth Services Paradigm to Better Support Young Adulthood and to participate in Evelyn’s series on Creating Safe Spaces for Peer Support Providers and Incorporating Anti-racist Practices in Peer Support Delivery.

Reach out to PS MHTTC Project Manager, Ingrid Severson to let us know what you think of YYA Now; Vision, Voice, and Ventures! What would you like to see more of? Who do you want to hear from? Email Ingrid at iseverson@cars-rp.org

Say His Name: Tyre Nichols

copyright Andrea Arroyo for the OppArt project

We honor the lives lost to violence and police brutality.

With the continuation of police and community violence, the Pacific Southwest MHTTC Team is committed to ensuring that we support BIPOC young people. Racial trauma is lifelong and impacts well-being and overall health. Community violence also disproportionately affects BIPOC young people due to racism impacting communities of color. Often, mental health systems also play a role in perpetuating systemic racism. The Pacific Southwest MHTTC will continue to offer learning opportunities that promote antiracist practice and support spaces that uplift the voices and experiences of BIPOC youth.

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Resources



• Resources for Talking about Race, Racism and Racialized Violence with Kids
• Racial Justice & Equity for BIPOC Youth | Bridge for Youth Impact
• Integrating Positive Youth Development and Racial Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging Approaches Across the Child Welfare and Justice Systems

Meet Tyus Reed

Tyus Reed, age 25, was born and raised in Tacoma, Washington. In 2014 at 17, he was pushed into the incarceration system. Tyus needed mental health services, but unfortunately, he experienced racism within the systems of care. Before his incarceration, the interactions he witnessed with police in his community were almost always violent and traumatizing. When he was 14, he had his first interaction with law enforcement. He was walking to the store and was stopped by the police. He was grabbed by his backpack and slammed on the street. 

While incarcerated, Tyus graduated from high school and began his involvement in peer support. He was released in 2018. Since then, he has been actively involved with systems of care reform and working to create a comprehensive system that offers the maximum support one needs to be successful for BIPOC young people. In addition, he has consulted national organizations on racial equity and continues his leadership journey in transforming systems. 

Congratulations, Tyus!

We are incredibly honored to uplift the powerful work of Rise For Youth, a youth advocacy and leadership program in Chesterfield, Virginia, that works to increase the wellbeing of young people in their community. Just as fiercely as they promote and protect the vibrancy and health within their community, they interrupt and challenge the injustice! Through powerful partnership building, Rise for Youth uplifts the experiences, strengths, dreams and hopes of young people most directly impacted by systems of oppression. Their incredible commitment to approaching community safety and youth development through a public health lens has proven to be transformative- interpersonally, relationally and legislatively.  

Check out a recording of Aging out or Growing Together to hear Rise for Youth’s executive director, Valerie Slater speak to the initiatives and efforts they are engaged in as an organization.

» Aging Out or Growing Together?: Flipping the Youth Services Paradigm to Better Support Young Adulthood

Join us in collaboration with diverse youth-serving organizations for a learning series that uplifts the complex and comprehensive needs of transition-aged youth. This five-part learning series is an open forum and discussion group for agencies and individuals that serve transition-aged youth and young adults. 

We will examine how our collective organizational values, implementation strategies, program design, and goals might expand to support the evolving, holistic needs of this age group. We will explore the creative ways youth-serving organizations are adjusting to best support them. Through guided conversation and promising-practice spotlights, this generative space will also unpack culturally and developmentally appropriate models that support young adults in attaining wellness and self-actualization.

Each session is facilitated by YYA Co-Team Lead Oriana Ides, MA, APCC, PPS, with one or more guest speakers. Oriana is a School Mental Health Training Specialist at CARS (Center for Applied Research Solutions) and she approaches healing the wounds of trauma and oppression as core elements of social justice.

Upcoming Sessions of Aging Out or Growing Together?:

» March 29: Elevating Culturally Affirming and Sustaining Services and Practices in Youth Service Agencies

Register for Session 3 >

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» March 31: Navigating Barriers to Service and Client/Participant Resistance in Case-Management

Register for Session 4 >

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» July 26: Closing Session

Register for Session 5 >

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Recording of Past Sessions:

» November 30: Kickoff Panel Discussion: Framing the Need for Responsive Young Adult Services

Watch Recording >

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» January 25: Building a Network of Support: Cross-Systems and Teaming with Caregivers

Watch Recording >

» Creating Safe Spaces for Peer Support Providers and Incorporating Anti-racist Practices in Peer Support Delivery

This learning series asks: How can we create spaces where all peer professionals feel safe? How do we support Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) peers and implement anti-racist practices within peer support?  

We welcome BIPOC peer support agencies, specialists and allies who work in mental health and cross-systems to this ongoing collaborative set of panel presentations and dialogue that explores ways of creating safe spaces for peer support providers within agencies. This affinity group series will open up opportunities to discuss ongoing support, career paths, antiracist practices, and how our Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) peers can navigate the field. It will also offer a space to learn from other peer specialists.

Each session is facilitated by YYA Co-Team Lead Evelyn Clark, CPC, with one or more guest speakers. Evelyn is a Mexican-Native American woman with nearly 15 years of experience serving young people and their families who were system involved.

Upcoming Sessions of Creating Safe Spaces for Peer Support Providers:

» April 19: Anti-racist Practices in Peer Support

Register for Session 3 >

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» June 28: Career Paths for Peer Support Specialists

Register for Session 4 >

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» August 30: Connection Building & Next Steps

Register for Session 5 >

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Recording of Past Sessions:

» December 7: Kickoff Panel Discussion

Watch Recording >

» Self-Care Tips for Youth & Young Adults

This visually engaging, interactive tip sheet is a comprehensive tool for helping youth and young adults understand and assess their own wellness. It outlines the Eight Dimensions of Wellness model and guides readers through a reflection activity that seeks to ground them in a larger sense of purpose.

Access here >

» Free Opportunity for Young People: Youth Advocate Leadership Academy (YALA)

March 11, 18, & 25

The Youth MOVE Peer Center is excited to offer YALA for YYA who want to build their own leadership skills for positive change! This is a FREE online opportunity that includes training sessions, self-paced learning, and peer group consults. This opportunity is for YYA ages 14 – 29 who are passionate about mental health and who identify as having lived experience in a youth-serving system.

View YALA Flyer >

Complete the YALA Participation Form >

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» Youth and Young Adult Support Space (YYASS!)

March 15 and every third Wednesday • 12 p.m. PT / 9 a.m. HT

The Youth and Young Adult Support Space (YYASS) is a monthly virtual learning and peer-sharing space for those who are working in and leading youth-centered programs and organizations. YYASS is perfect for leaders of Youth MOVE chapters and other youth-run programs that engage youth with lived mental health experience in change-making.

Register for YYASS! >

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» Filling Your Cup: Self-Care Practice for Youth

March 16 • 3 p.m. PT / 12 p.m. HT

This no-cost Youth Peer Center workshop focuses on the importance of strategies and self-reflection tools youth peers can use for managing their self care. This workshop is facilitated by young adults with their own lived experience of mental health, and it is centered in a healing and intersectional approach.

Register for Filling Your Cup >

» How to Help Yourself Transition to Adulthood

Youth MOVE National Peer Center

This document is a collection of practical information and tips directly for young adults who are navigating the transition to adulthood.

Access Tip Sheet >

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» Understanding the Biopsychosocial Impacts of Racism on Young Adults

H20 Productions

If These Cells Could Talk is a mini documentary that explores the impacts of schooling on the Black body. This is a powerful look into concrete ways we might protect not only Black youth but all young people through a more humanizing school experience.

Access Documentary >

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» A Story About Healing Racial Trauma and Systemic Racism

Center for Child Trauma Assessment, Services & Interventions

This short film and its accompanying resources serve as incredible tools for educator and therapist training, clinical and service provider discussion, and system- and self-inquiry. Jade follows one family through various school spaces and highlights the institution’s many missed opportunities to offer Jade witnessing, affirmation, safety, resources, and healing.

Access Film >

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» Research Update on Peer Support for Youth and Young Adults

Research and Training Center for Pathways to Positive Futures

This brief report summarizes research since 2018 on peer support for youth and young adults who experience serious mental health challenges.

Access Report >

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» Queer and Trans Youth Mental Health: Trauma-Informed & Anti-Racist Co-Conspiratorship

Northwest MHTTC

This webinar recording provides a community-defined and evidence-based foundation for mental health providers serving queer and transgender communities, centering anti-racism and lived experience.

Watch Queer & Trans Youth Webinar Recording >

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» Rites and Rituals: Bringing a Cultural Lens to Positive Youth Development for Black Girls Recording

Central East MHTTC

This webinar recording explores trauma-informed care, authentic engagement, and avoiding adultification with Black girls.

Watch Rites & Rituals Webinar Recording >

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» A Clinician’s Guide to FEP for Hispanic and Latinx Youth

National Hispanic and Latino MHTTC

This manual provides clinicians from differing backgrounds and disciplines information on supporting Hispanic and Latinx youth who are experiencing a first episode of psychosis (FEP).

Access Clinician's Guide >

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» Sexual Assault Awareness for American Indian and Alaska Native Youth

National American Indian and Alaska Native MHTTC

This guide is written for Indigenous youth, who are disproportionately at risk for sexual violence. Using a cultural and anti-colonialist lens, it discusses what is sexual violence, what is consent, and how to get help.

Access Sexual Assault Awareness Guide >