Key Dates
JULY 2024
- July 12: CBO applications due (Year 1 pilot participants)
- July 26: CBO applications due (new applicants)
AUG 2024
- Selected CBOs register as WPP providers
- Orientation and program planning with selected CBOs
- CBOs recruit youth
OCT 2024-MAY 2025
- Paid work experience for youth advocates at CBOs
- Academy training, coaching, and support for youth advocates and CBOs
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Youth Mental Health Advocate
Pilot Program
The Youth Mental Health Advocate pilot will equip young people with skills to provide culturally responsive mental health support to other youth. In its second pilot year, this program will fund 15 part-time youth advocates to work in youth-serving community organizations across NYC between October 2024-May 2025. The Academy will provide training, coaching, and support to the youth advocates and their host organizations.
DESCRIPTION
The Academy and partners will pilot a Youth Mental Health Advocate model that can be implemented in NYC community-based organizations.
This program acknowledges rising rates of distress among young people and widening disparities. Youth who experience racism, violence or discrimination linked to an LGBTQ+ identity, homelessness, and economic insecurity are among those who experience more harm and have less access to care. Young people can play an important role in designing solutions to these challenges. This program will build on their experiences, skills, insights, and hopes.
Funding is available for a total of 15 advocates to work 20 hours/week between Oct 2024-May 2025 at the rate of $20/hour. HRA’s Work Progress Program (WPP) will reimburse youth service providers for wages paid to the youth mental health advocates.
The final curriculum for the Youth Mental Health Advocate program will be co-developed with participating CBOs and youth advocates. We seek to:
Advance youth-centered responses to rising rates of distress among young people
The Academy will provide training and ongoing coaching that equip youth advocates with skills to provide mental health support in 1:1 conversations, deliver group-based psychoeducation, and make referrals.
The Academy will also provide training and support to CBOs that host the youth advocates. This will include access to the Academy’s training in trauma-informed supervision, along with other supports to help CBOs successfully implement this program.
Support the personal and professional development of the youth advocates
Youth advocates will learn tools to care for their own mental health while developing valuable skills, gaining professional experience, and accessing college credits. Youth advocates will receive:
- Skills training and ongoing coaching from the Academy
- Supervision and support from the CBO they are employed at
- Access to CUNY SPS Youth Studies courses in positive youth development
- Specialized support to pursue a next step in their education or career, such as college admissions assistance, resume development, and interview preparation
- Up to 8 college credits
See the “Resources” section for program FAQs.
PARTNERS
The Youth Mental Health Advocate program is part of Working the Gap, a collaboration between the CUNY SPS Youth Studies program and the Academy. Working the Gap offers applied skills training, paid work experience, and college level courses to young people ages 18-24 who have completed high school or a GED, are not currently enrolled in college, and have not earned a bachelor's degree.
The Youth Mental Health Advocate program is made possible by funding and support from the Mayor’s Office for Economic Opportunity and HRA Work Progress Program.
Working the Gap and the Youth Mental Health Advocate program also receive funding from the Carroll and Milton Petrie Foundation and Solon E. Summerfield Foundation.
ELIGIBILITY
Funding is available for a total of 15 advocates to work 20 hours/week between Oct 2024-May 2025 at the rate of $20/hour. HRA’s Work Progress Program (WPP) will reimburse youth service providers for wages paid to the youth mental health advocates.
We seek organizations who will invest in the personal and professional development of the youth advocates, including by fully onboarding and integrating them into your program or team, providing them with opportunities to learn, and offering consistent supervision and support.
Organizations who would like to host youth advocates must meet the following criteria:
- A non-profit organization that already delivers services to youth and young people in NYC
- Willingness to accept three (3) youth advocates
- Commitment to key program activities, including: Register as WPP providers to receive reimbursement (August 2024). This includes: WPP provider application form
- Registering your organization in the PASSPort procurement system
- Hire and onboard youth advocates at your organization (by October 2024)
- Provide youth advocates with administrative and clinical supervision
- Participate in training and support from the Academy, including a provider orientation; periodic check-ins to assess and improve the experience for CBOs and youth advocates; and other activities
- Work with the Academy to develop or strengthen a process for referring young people to clinical mental health care, where needed
- Report key data to WPP, including new hire data and monthly and quarterly program reports
INSTRUCTORS
