Training Institutes 2012 - National Technical Assistance Center for ...

Specific topics to be covered include:
• How YSPs as staff contribute to better outcomes in systems of care
• The need for intensive coaching and mentoring for YSPs
• Recruitment strategies including Craig’s List, Facebook, and other unconventional ways to recruit YSPs
• Lessons learned and issues for replication when using young adults with lived experience in the staff role of YSP
The faculty team will include the perspectives of current or former YSPs and a YSP coach. Some of the ideas about
YSPs that they will convey are expressed below.
“When I first started out as a YSP I was shocked and amazed that the professionals started to take a vested interested in
what the youth had to say. It was like someone hit the ‘easy button’ and magically people started to listen. The High-
Fidelity Wraparound process was a no-brainer when I first heard about it. There was a YSP to work with the youth and a
Family Support Provider to work with the parent/guardian. The first word that came to my mind was—GENIUS!!!! I
wish this was around when I was younger!”
“I look at my experiences—the good, bad and ugly—to motivate me to help the youth I work with, to get them through
the bad and the ugly faster than what I went through so they can live in the good. With all the jobs I’ve had and all the
people I have talked to I don’t know of any job more fulfilling then this one.”
“For the youth that I have worked with I was able to give them tips and share my experience of how things were for me as
I was growing up. The idea of the YSP is not to change how the youth live but to put hope into how they live. Today I am
a supervisor for the unit and can now share what I have learned with staff in hopes that the staff will use it out in the field.”
MODERATOR/PRESENTER: Aaron Thomas, Youth Support Partner Supervisor/Coach, Allegheny County
Department of Human Services, Pittsburgh, PA
Markese Long, M.A.O.L., Youth Support Partner Supervisor/Coach, Diversified Care Management, Allegheny County
Department of Human Services, Pittsburgh, PA
Chad Owens, Youth Support Partner, High Fidelity Family Teams, Child and Family Focus, Hatboro, PA
RESOURCE PERSON: Kenneth Nash, M.D, Western Psychiatric Institutes and Clinic, Chief of Clinical Services,
Pittsburgh, PA
WORKSHOP #6 1:30 PM THURSDAY • 10:30 AM SATURDAY • DESTIN 1-2
How to Implement Cross-System Behavioral Support Services in High-Need Schools
OBJECTIVES—Participants will learn:
1. How to identify appropriate schools with a student population that will benefit from behavioral support services in
schools
2. To describe concrete steps for program design and implementation
3. To identify potential challenges and solutions for engaging key stakeholders and obtaining buy-in
4. To specify the key components of establishing successful communication within a school-based program
5. To employ methods for identifying and tracking process and outcome measures
This Workshop will focus on the process, challenges, and lessons learned through the planning and implementation of a
replicable model for collaborative service delivery designed to improve educational and behavioral health outcomes for
children in high need districts/schools.
The strategies to be highlighted are based on the work of the New York Promise Zones for Urban Education (Promise
Zones), that is an action strategy designed to achieve New York State’s goals of student engagement, academic
achievement, dropout prevention, social and emotional competence, and positive school culture and school safety. The
overarching goal of the Promise Zone initiative is that children are on task and ready to learn in high-need, high-poverty
schools leading to reduced absenteeism, truancy, and incidents; increased instructional time; and improved educational
outcomes. The initiative formalizes partnerships between local school districts and child-serving state and local
Training Institutes 2012
WORKSHOPS
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