Project Abstract Summary
PACT for Families Collaborative, a mature, five county children’s mental health and social services organization serving rural MN proposes Journey to Independence to expand support to youth ages 16-21 who struggle with recognized (SED/SMI) or emerging mental health issues, and their parents by utilizing the Transition to Independence Planning (TIP) Model® and collaborating with key community, mental health providers and policy makers.
Journey to Independence will provide services to 150 unduplicated youth throughout the four year project term. An estimated 30 unduplicated youth will be served in year one with 40 unduplicated youth served per year in years two through four. The project will assist youth in developing greater self-sufficiency and independence while emphasizing the role of parents/guardians in guiding and supporting their youth through the transition to adulthood. Using the TIP Model®, the project will employ in-vivo coaching throughout five domains including employment, education, housing, life skills and wellness.
Ensuring these youth receive wraparound support, Journey focuses on enhancing the skills and capacities of parents to support their youth through: one to one support, education and resources. Journey to Independence proposes to serve 300 parents/guardians over the four years through the organization and implementation of an educational seminar series, one to one support sessions, community outreach through correspondence and social media, and by facilitating parent networking groups where resources can be shared between parents, providers, staff, and community members.
Additionally, this proposal establishes a Sustainability Task Force in year one to operate over the four years as a steering committee focused on collecting data on service delivery gaps, funding shortfalls, and strategies for institutionalizing the project’s model into the structure of the counties’ social services networks. Putting sustainability at the heart of this project reinforces PACT’s commitment to changing the system of care as it exists today, thereby demonstrating to rural Minnesota communities how they can support this vulnerable population. Journey to Independence represents a shift in service delivery and wraparound support that will improve the resilience of our targeted rural youth, nurture more durable parent-child bonds, and sway communities to adopt similar systems of care and to recognize the value of investing in this particular transition point.