Journey Sector: Youth & Young Adult Group Residence (YYAGR)
Centerboard’s YYAGR is designed for males and females sixteen years old or older who are able to independently manage community access. The program focuses on building independent living skills and supporting the transition to young adulthood. Staff focus on ensuring that residents can live within a budget & save money, food shop & cook, do their own laundry, utilize transportation, complete an educational program, and obtain employment. In-program services are supplemented with offering from Centerboard’s Family Resource Center, We Rise, and T.R.U.E. Mentor Programs. YYAGR youth are referred to Centerboard from the Department of Children & Families.
The YYAGR is staffed 24/7 with two staff per shift (1:5 ratio). The building is a home-like environment in a residential neighborhood. There are two single bedrooms and four double bedrooms on each level with two shared full bathrooms on each floor. The living room, dining room, and kitchen are in a large, open space. Program staff prepare dinner every night.
Services Offered:
Trauma-Informed, Individualized Treatment Planning
Psycho-educational groups
Educational and vocational planning and support
Recreational activities
Behavioral Support Plans
Crisis support
Coordination of Individual therapy
Family Therapy
Individual supports toward independence and navigation to and through adult services
Health & Wellness
Coordination of Psychiatric Services & Medication
Continuum of Care
Children and youth in out-of-home placement are best supported through a continuum of care that provides ongoing services from entry to exit. The goal of this approach is to use the most appropriate and least restrictive interventions while ensuring that safety issues and needs are addressed. Centerboard offers a continuum of care that includes services for youth reunifying with family, as well as a Youth & Young Adult Supported Community Living and Young Adult Supported Living for youth with a goal of APPLA.
Achieving Permanency
Centerboard Youth Service Programs practice Permanency-specific work with each young adult, using three essential strategies – Family Search and Engagement, Youth Guided Teaming and Permanency. Our Permanency services are designed to establish a significant adult connection in a youth’s life as they age out of many youth service programs. We believe our young adults are best prepared to transition to adulthood when they have at least one caring, committed adult in their life. Permanency planning options are identified through a youth guided activity, Safety Circles, where staff initiate conversations to address options with kinship and lifelong connections. Safety Circles allow the youth to identify who is important and visible in their life and build a network of support. The intended goal is to create a viable permanent plan, with a strong support network and to achieve permanent housing.
Behavior Support
Centerboard's Youth Service Programs empower youth by creating a safe, trauma-informed environment. Our core belief is that behavior should be managed through a nurturing and supporting relationship with the primary objective of using reasonable discussion as the avenue toward problem resolution. Safety is maintained by managing behavior with incentives, restrictions, and responses with the goal of building the necessary skills for youth to respond adaptively. To the extent possible, behavior support and intervention strategies must be fair, non-punitive, as brief as possible, and related to any relevant strategy that might be described in the youth’s treatment plan.
