Transitions to Adulthood Center for Research Feb. 2025 Newsletter

In this Issue...

• Creating and Sustaining Youth Advisory Boards (YABs): A Toolkit for Health and Human Services
• PODCAST: UMass Chan the Voices features Dr. Lourah Kelly
• The latest S.T.A.Y. Tuned podcast episodes
• HYPE on Campus: Initial Results Webinar
• New article: Peer Academic Supports for Success: Pilot Randomised Controlled Feasibility Trial in Early Intervention in Psychiatry
• The CIRC Center's two new tips sheets & YouTube Shorts
• Dr. Kathryn Sabella named CAPES Emerging Scholar
• Follow us on Bluesky social

New Resource: An Online Toolkit

Do you want to add youth voice to your organization, but don’t know how? Come and see our new free online toolkit that provides tools and techniques for building and sustaining a young adult advisory council. 

We designed and tested it to be adaptable for the unique population your organization serves.

Explore the Online Toolkit

New S.T.A.Y. Tuned Podcast Episodes

View all of our podcasts and transcripts HERE.

New Tip Sheets from The CIRC Center

What is Community Participation

Community participation is used in mental health services and research to refer to community-based activities that promote overall health and wellness. However, many people find this concept to be confusing, vague, and hard to understand.

This tip sheet will define “community participation,” describe relevant experiences of young adults (ages 14–26) with serious mental health conditions (SMHC) from populations that have been marginalized, and provide reflections from our various advisory boards of young adults, family members, and professionals in the field.

YT Short: Joshua breaks down community participation.

Demystifying Civic Engagement: How to Make Your Voice Heard (Beyond Voting!) & 5 Tips to Get Started

Civic engagement describes the process taken by individuals or groups to identify and address issues of concern within their communities.

This tip sheet outlines 5 ways to get involved in civic engagement that are in addition to voting OR that can be done before you’re old enough to vote.

YT Short: Joshua explains how to make your voice heard.

COULD YOU USE TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE?

Technical Assistance activities are an extension of the research and training activities of the Transitions to Adulthood Center for Research. Our TA services can range from simple resource referrals to on-site development of a formal TA plan (including fact-finding, goals, responsibilities, timelines, and evaluation measures). We are ready to help you develop programs, polices, and practices that support the community participation, educational, and employment outcomes of youth with mental health conditions.

Please complete the form below for Technical Assistance from Transitions to Adulthood Center for Research. Please note that we do not provide clinical consultation, behavioral services, or referrals.

THINGS WE DO

Adulting Shorts:

Info-Comics

Memes Created by Young Adults for Young Adults

Young Adult Blogs

S.T.A.Y. Tuned:

Young Adult Podcast

Tip Sheets for Young Adults/their Supporters

Webinars about Topics on Young Adult Mental Health

RESOURCES BY TOPIC

Community Participation — Employment — Education — Life Skills



Select publications are available in Mandarin (普通话出版物 Pǔtōnghuà chūbǎn wù), Portuguese (Português), Spanish (español) and Vietnamese (Tiếng Việt)

WHO WE ARE

The Transitions to Adulthood Center for Research (Transitions ACR) promotes the full participation in socially valued roles of transition-age youth and young adults (ages 14-30) with serious mental health conditions. Transitions to ACR is located within the Implementation Science and Practice Advances Research Center (iSPARC) and houses The CIRC Center and Learning & Working During the Transition to Adulthood Rehabilitation Research & Training Center, among other projects.

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iSPARC

As a Massachusetts Department of Mental Health Research Center of Excellence located within the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences at UMass Chan Medical School, iSPARC aims to improve the mental and behavioral health of all citizens of Massachusetts and beyond.

Some of the contents of this message are supported in part under grants with funding from the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research, (NIDILRR), United States Departments of Health and Human Services (NIDILRR grant numbers 90RTEM0005, 90RTCP0010 and 90RTEM0012) and co-funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). NIDILRR is a Center within the Administration for Community Living (ACL), Department of Health and Human Services. The contents of this message do not necessarily represent the policy of NIDILRR, ACL, SAMHSA, or HHS, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government.​