Journey Sector: Youth & Young Adult Supported Community Living (YYASCL)

Centerboard’s YYASCL is designed for all genders of youth age 18-22 who are able to manage community access with limited support. The program focuses on supporting independent living skills as youth transition to young adulthood.  Residents are working towards living within a budget & saving money, food shopping & cooking, and utilizing transportation with support. Residents are expected to be enrolled in an educational program and/or obtain employment. In-program services are supplemented with offering from Centerboard’s Family Resource Center, We Rise, and T.R.U.E. Mentor Programs. YYASCL youth are referred to Centerboard from the Department of Children & Families.

The YYASCL is staffed 24/7, including during the overnight hours. When staff is out of the building, youth have a phone number to call to reach a staff member. The building is a home-like environment in a residential neighborhood. There are three two-bedroom units each with their own bathroom. The living room, dining room, and kitchen are in a large, open space and there is onsite laundry. Program staff prepare dinner some nights.

Services Offered:

Diana Bean, Program Director

  • Trauma-Informed, Individualized Treatment Planning

  • Educational and vocational planning and support

  • Recreational activities

  • Behavioral Support Plans

  • Crisis support

  • Coordination of Individual 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 a Young Adult Supported Living Program for youth with a goal of APPLA who may not require the level of support at the YYACL.

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.