Behavioral Health Clubs

The overarching aims of this project are to reach out to young people and help them develop leadership skills by fostering positive youth development, getting young people engaged in adult/youth partnerships, and creating leadership positions that allow youth to participate in meaningful work (i.e., the stated Work Plan goal of increasing youth access to behavioral health supports in schools).

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Youth involvement is the central focus of the project. YFC plans to tie recruitment for this project to an ongoing youth outreach strategy such as hosting fun events for young people (bowling, movie nights, dance lessons, etc.). YFC will advertise and host these events so that members have an opportunity to share information about this project and other System of Care work YFC is engaged in. Informational materials must be developed for this purpose (e.g., website, flyers, pamphlets, etc.). As more young people become involved in the project, the prospect of having youth redesign the social marketing materials will be addressed.

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Those young people who sign on to work on the behavioral health clubs project will have an opportunity to gain leadership skills by:

• Creating a social marketing plan that includes identifying program goals and standards for success,

• Selecting schools to work with and creating outreach and informational materials that are suitable for those specific audiences,

• Providing technical assistance to students and faculty advisors in setting up campus clubs, and

• Measuring outcomes and reporting results.

 

Requirements

• Dedicated funding for sponsoring regular youth outreach events (dance or art classes, bowling, movie nights, etc.)

• Domain and web hosting for a website dedicated to behavioral health clubs and/or other topics of interest to youth with lived experience.

• Canva pro account to develop graphics, flyers, social media content, and other promotional materials.

• Funding to cover the cost of compensating youth leaders

 

Deliverables

• 6 fun youth outreach events in 2024

• Website/webpage dedicated to YFC youth

• Position description for Youth Leaders

• Training curriculum and materials for outreach and onboarding

 

Affected Processes or Systems

• Outreach efforts will need to focus on the school clubs project as an inroad to providing information about System of Care and FYSPRT work.

 

High-Level Implementation Plan

1. Calendar of youth outreach events

2. Purchase domain, webhosting, and Canva Pro

3. Create a website and materials to promote the development of school clubs.

4. Define youth leadership roles in this project and make this available as a position description.

5. Identify project goals and standards for success.

6. Select schools to reach out to and develop informational materials for each identified audience.

7. Implement plan.

8. Measure and report on outcomes.