Com­mu­ni­ty Programs

The Com­mu­ni­ty Col­lab­o­ra­tion Team pro­motes healthy choic­es for youth ages 11 – 18 and young adults 19 – 24 through edu­ca­tion, aware­ness of health issues, pol­i­cy change, com­mu­ni­ty col­lab­o­ra­tion, and evi­dence-based pro­grams that sup­port pos­i­tive youth devel­op­ment and build healthy communities.

A needs-based port­fo­lio of projects work­ing across the con­tin­u­um of care (pre­ven­tion, inter­ven­tion, recov­ery, and harm reduc­tion) that are over­seen by a com­mu­ni­ty advi­so­ry group called the Com­mu­ni­ties for Pos­i­tive Youth Devel­op­ment and sub­com­mit­tees, includ­ing the tar­get audience. 

The Com­mu­ni­ty Col­lab­o­ra­tion Team Oper­ates on the prin­ci­ple of ​“noth­ing about us, with­out us.”

Fund­ing pro­vid­ed to Ken­neth Young Cen­ter by the Sub­stance Abuse and Men­tal Health Ser­vices Admin­is­tra­tion (SAMH­SA), the Office of Nation­al Drug Con­trol Pol­i­cy (OND­CP), the Cen­ters for Dis­ease Con­trol and Pre­ven­tion (CDC), the Illi­nois Depart­ment of Human Ser­vices (IDHS), Cook Coun­ty Depart­ment of Health (CCDPH), Com­mu­ni­ty Con­sol­i­dat­ed School Dis­trict 62 (D62), and Schaum­burg Town­ship, and Pub­lic Health Insti­tute of Met­ro­pol­i­tan Chica­go (PHIMC).

Con­tact Us

Sub­stance Use Pre­ven­tion Ser­vices (SUPS)

Tar­get Com­mu­ni­ty: Schaum­burg, Pala­tine, Elk Grove Township

Goal: To reduce alco­hol and non-med­ical pre­scrip­tion drug use rates of 8^th to 12^th graders by:

• imple­ment­ing com­mu­ni­ca­tion campaigns;
• imple­ment­ing evi­dence-based pre­ven­tion edu­ca­tion, Too Good for Drugs
• advo­cat­ing for school par­tic­i­pa­tion in the Illi­nois Youth Survey;
• pro­mot­ing Drug Take-Back programs;
• cre­at­ing Nation­al Pre­ven­tion Week activ­i­ties; and
• work­ing with a Youth Advi­so­ry Council.

Recov­ery-Ori­ent­ed Sys­tems of Care (ROSC)

Tar­get Com­mu­ni­ties: Schaum­burg, Hoff­man Estates, Elk Grove, Pala­tine, Hanover, and a por­tion of unin­cor­po­rat­ed Des Plaines

Goal: To improve our community’s con­tin­u­um of care, with a focus on recov­ery ser­vices for vet­er­ans and young adults ages 16 – 24 by June, 2020 by:

• con­duct­ing a com­mu­ni­ty needs assessment;
• devel­op­ing a com­mu­ni­ty resource map and list of gaps;
• cre­at­ing a com­mu­ni­ty out­reach plan con­sist­ing of a first-year imple­men­ta­tion plan, a three-year imple­men­ta­tion plan, and long-term sus­tain­abil­i­ty goals;
• devel­op­ing a com­mu­ni­ca­tion plan direct­ed toward peo­ple in recov­ery; and
• estab­lish­ing a per­ma­nent com­mu­ni­ty ROSC Council.

Men­tal Health Aware­ness Train­ing (MHAT)

Tar­get Com­mu­ni­ties: Pala­tine, Schaum­burg, Elk Grove Vil­lage, Bloom­ing­dale, Hanover Park, Elgin, Wheel­ing, Maine, Dundee, and Barrington

Goals:

1. Train peo­ple in Men­tal Health First Aid 

2. Reduce men­tal health stigma

Non-Clin­i­cal Mentoring

Tar­get Com­mu­ni­ty: Com­mu­ni­ty Con­sol­i­dat­ed School Dis­trict 62 

Goals :

1. Pro­vide Home vis­its and assess fam­i­ly care and needs to include: Home­work help/​tutoring
2. Men­tor­ing
3. Con­nec­tions to com­mu­ni­ty resources based on fam­i­ly needs (e.g. food, cloth­ing, trans­porta­tion, and/​or imme­di­ate shelter) 
4. Train­ing for Dis­trict staff on Com­pas­sion Fatigue / Pan­dem­ic Fatigue / Self-care 
5. Par­ent and fam­i­ly workshops 
6. Ter­tiary sub­stance use pre­ven­tion ser­vices for youth and their families 

Teen Respon­si­bil­i­ty, Edu­ca­tion, Achieve­ment, Car­ing, and Hope (REACH)

Teen REACH (Respon­si­bil­i­ty, Edu­ca­tion, Achieve­ment, Car­ing, and Hope) is a com­pre­hen­sive youth devel­op­ment ini­tia­tive that pro­vides after-school pro­gram ser­vices to high-risk youth between the ages of 6 and 17 with at least one IDHS-des­ig­nat­ed risk factor.

Tar­get Com­mu­ni­ty: Com­mu­ni­ty Con­sol­i­dat­ed School Dis­trict 62

Goal:

1. To pro­vide a safe envi­ron­ment with car­ing adult role mod­els that will work with youth to increase aca­d­e­m­ic achieve­ment and devel­op the life skills nec­es­sary for future success. 

Region­al Sub­stance Use Pre­ven­tion Inte­gra­tion Cen­ter (RSUPIC)

Tar­get Com­mu­ni­ty: Cook Coun­ty (Non-Chica­go)

Goals:

1. Increase the amount of sub­stance use pre­ven­tion strate­gies that are avail­able and applied local­ized to region­al needs. 

2. Pro­vide ser­vices that will increase the num­ber of sub­stance use pre­ven­tion strate­gies avail­able and imple­ment­ed through col­lab­o­ra­tion, train­ing, and sup­port of inte­gra­tion activities. 

To learn more about Region­al Sub­stance Use Pre­ven­tion Inte­gra­tion Cen­ter vis­it: inte​gratepre​ven​tion​.org

Com­mu­ni­ty Youth Services

The Com­mu­ni­ty Youth Ser­vices (CYS) grant focus­es on engag­ing youth and young adults (ages 11 – 24) in the pre­ven­tion of youth vio­lence and delin­quen­cy.

Tar­get Com­mu­ni­ty: Hanover Town­ship, Elk Grove Town­ship, and North­west Sub­urbs.

Goals:

Our pro­gram’s ini­tia­tive is to reduce the rate of youth vio­lence and delin­quen­cy among youth and young adults with­in our ser­vice area by:

• Facil­i­tat­ing the LGBTQ+ Teen & Young Adult Cen­ter pro­gram­ming
• Main­tain­ing a Youth Advi­so­ry Coun­cil
• Con­duct­ing a com­mu­ni­ty assess­ment to estab­lish rel­e­vant ser­vices need­ed for the community.

Com­mu­ni­ty-Based Sub­stance Use Prevention

The IDHS Divi­sion of Sub­stance Use Pre­ven­tion and Recov­ery (IDHS-SUPR) pro­vides lead­er­ship and resources to the Illi­nois com­mu­ni­ty-based alco­hol, tobac­co and oth­er drug abuse (ATOD) pre­ven­tion sys­tem. As part of its duties, the Bureau sets direc­tion, defines trends, pro­motes evi­dence-based pre­ven­tion approach­es, and pro­vides fund­ing, train­ing, tech­ni­cal assis­tance and mon­i­tor­ing for qual­i­ty assurance.

The Sub­stance Use Pre­ven­tion provider sys­tem in Illi­nois has a his­to­ry of qual­i­ty ser­vices. Its focus over the last decade has been to trans­form the ATOD pre­ven­tion sys­tem from one based on activ­i­ties to one based on out­comes. Today, evi­dence-based pro­grams, prac­tices, and poli­cies are at the core of all provider work plan efforts. Providers are expect­ed to adhere to the out­come-based plan­ning process, and are also required to select strate­gies and pro­gram mod­els that have pro­duced some lev­el of evi­dence that they will be effec­tive in achiev­ing their intend­ed outcomes.

Illi­nois’s ATOD Pre­ven­tion com­mu­ni­ty net­work of 127 providers is one of the Nation’s most com­pre­hen­sive. It includes a mix of local, region­al, and statewide pro­grams housed in both pub­lic and pri­vate agency settings. 

Com­pre­hen­sive Com­mu­ni­ty Based Providers (CBPs) deliv­er pro­gram­ming in their ser­vice area that tar­gets the com­mu­ni­ty at large with empha­sis on impact­ing the envi­ron­ments in which young peo­ple live. Evi­dence-based approach­es that tar­get youth, their peers, fam­i­lies, school envi­ron­ment, and com­mu­ni­ty are imple­ment­ed as part of a com­pre­hen­sive pre­ven­tion plan. Empha­sis is placed on build­ing local part­ner­ships to imple­ment envi­ron­men­tal approach­es that change com­mu­ni­ty norms and poli­cies, and increase the com­mu­ni­ty’s capac­i­ty to sus­tain effec­tive efforts.

Evi­dence-Based Prevention

Evi­dence-based Pre­ven­tion includes strate­gies or pro­grams that have shown through some lev­el of evi­dence that they are effec­tive. The min­i­mal lev­el being a sin­gle pre/​post eval­u­a­tion. These pro­grams are not held to as rig­or­ous an eval­u­a­tion stan­dard as are those that are clas­si­fied by the dis­tinc­tion of being Sci­ence or Research-based.

Trau­ma-Informed Approach Includes Six Principles:

1. Safe­ty
2. Trust­wor­thi­ness and Transparency 
3. Peer Sup­port
4. Col­lab­o­ra­tion and Mutuality 
5. Empow­er­ment Voice and Choice 
6. Cul­tur­al, His­tor­i­cal, and Gen­der Issues 

Prin­ci­ples of Pos­i­tive Youth Development:

1. Phys­i­cal and psy­cho­log­i­cal safety
2. Appro­pri­ate structure
3. Sup­port­ive relationships
4. Oppor­tu­ni­ties to belong
5. Pos­i­tive social norms
6. Oppor­tu­ni­ties to make a difference
7. Oppor­tu­ni­ties for skill development;
8. Inte­gra­tion of fam­i­ly, school, and com­mu­ni­ty efforts