Transitional Age Youth "TAY" (Ages 16-25) |
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Foster Children & Youth |
Program Examples
TAY Peer Support (Humboldt County)
The integration of peer coaches within the TAY Division is a prevention program with components of early intervention and access and linkage to treatment. The TAY Peer Support program consists of: a shared Supervising Mental Health Clinician and five full-time peer coaches. Peer coaches are an integral part of the multidisciplinary team at the TAY Division, and rotating quarterly between each of the Division’s programs (HCTAYC, Behavioral Health, Independent Living Skills, and the Drop-in Center). Peer coaches operate from the lens of empowerment and recovery and integrate into the division in four main ways: 1. relationship building and mentoring, 2. outreach and engagement, 3. linkage to resources and 4. activity coordination.
The integration of peer coaches within the TAY Division is a prevention program with components of early intervention and access and linkage to treatment. The TAY Peer Support program consists of: a shared Supervising Mental Health Clinician and five full-time peer coaches. Peer coaches are an integral part of the multidisciplinary team at the TAY Division, and rotating quarterly between each of the Division’s programs (HCTAYC, Behavioral Health, Independent Living Skills, and the Drop-in Center). Peer coaches operate from the lens of empowerment and recovery and integrate into the division in four main ways: 1. relationship building and mentoring, 2. outreach and engagement, 3. linkage to resources and 4. activity coordination.
- Relationship building and mentoring is done by Peer Coaches using their personal lived experiences to connect with young people ages 16-26 and focuses on mentoring, instilling hope, empowering and helping young people build self-esteem, and assisting in system navigation and self-advocacy. Peer Coaches have the capacity to engage with young people through shared lived experiences. This makes them unique in their ability to relate, provide support, and model self-advocacy, recovery, and self-care skills. Peer Coaches build relationships with young people in ways that create validation, inspire hope, and support program participants through empowerment and trust. Peer Coaches build mutuality in their relationships with young people, creating a relationship built on respect, compassion, and reciprocity. Through this unique relationship, young people are able to build self-determination, self-esteem, and gain skills necessary for transition into adulthood. Relationship building is done by providing individual meetings both at the TAY Center and in the community, utilizing shared experiences, in-vivo role modeling, teaching, and exploring the strengths and needs of the young person from the Transition to Independence Process (TIP) model. Peer Coaches are able to assist young people in building their relational capacity by supporting them when accessing social, vocational, or educational opportunities.
- Outreach and engagement is provided to young people by linkage to services and to the community. This serves to inform them of services available to transition age youth and supports the reduction of stigma and discrimination toward the systemsinvolved transition age population. Outreach is provided in multiple ways including referrals for services, the TAY Center drop-in space, community-wide presentations, and tabling events. Peer Coaches provide regular outreach to the psychiatric hospital, jail, juvenile hall, schools, family resource centers, tribal organizations, and team with other community partners for street outreach to youth experiencing homelessness. Overall, peer coaching contributes to participant engagement with care, increased effectiveness of services, reduced barriers to services and supports, improved outcomes, reduced hospitalization or incarceration, and increased support for educational and vocational success.
- Linkage to resources available through multiple agencies helps to support increased youth engagement across programs, improve access to needed services, stigma reduction, greater understanding of lived experiences, increased advocacy, improved relationship with providers, and the ability to show staff and youth that recovery is possible. Peer Coaches assist young people with referrals to services and support them in appointments or activities. Peer Coaches often serve as a bridge between the young person and services, providing warm hand offs from psychiatric hospitalizations, incarceration, or walk-ins to service providers, activities, or other resources.
- Activity coordination is done to provide transition age skill development opportunities for young people. Peer Coaches collaborate or take the lead in many TAY Division workshops and events, often in response to youth requests and identified needs. Activity coordination varies from regular oversight of the TAY Center drop-in space, where young people can access service providers, computers, linkage the CalFresh and food resources, clothing closet and hygiene supplies, to workshops on self-care, healthy relationships, wellness, and life skills. Target Population: Humboldt County Youth ages 16-26 who have or are experiencing homelessness, interaction with the juvenile justice system and/or Child welfare systems, youth who opted into the Extended Foster Care program, those experiencing mental health needs, those experiencing issues with Substance use and youth seeking employment. (from 2019/20 MHSA Update, pages 87, 88)