Betsy’s current research focuses on programs and practices that save kids from the psychiatric maelstrom. Some prevent the downward spiral into the miasma of psychiatric complications and others help children already caught in that system. Betsy has had some enlightening interviews with directors of such programs and with scientists and practitioners whose work she is very excited about. Watch this page as soon the first of these will appear. Preview: it’s about the Youth Advocate Program (YAP), a national organization that provides wraparound services to troubled youth. Betsy met with Jerame Hawkins, director of YAP in Ithaca.
On a cold, rainy, June morning in 2010, a dismal day was illuminated by a 45-minute visit with Jerame Hawkins, director of the Youth Advocate Program (YAP) in Ithaca. Jerame met my quest for promising practices for children and youth by granting me an interview. His ardor was palpable as soon as our discussion commenced. His first statement regarding “pulling” youths from juvenile incarceration evoked my curiosity. Jerame explained that after 6 months in detention, YAP advocates “pull” chosen youngsters from their 12 month sentence and return them to their families. Advocates ask, why can’t these kids get their services in the community rather than in isolated, artificial settings of juvenile detention centers, foster care, or residential treatment facilities. These alternatives often fail because when youngsters are released they return to their communities and families where nothing has changed. Jerame tells me they serve youth, both male and female, aged 13 to 18. Some find their way to YAP by exhausting all other resources in the community, which might include PINS (person in need of supervision) services, foster care, a group home, or residential mental health treatment. They stay with the YAP for a year.
YAP is known as a SPOA (single point of accountability). This means that YAP remains accountable even as the client family may receive services from several different agencies. But the YAP approach is non-traditional. Unlike most other agencies, advocates don’t dictate what is required from youth. They ask how they can be helpful; “What do you need from us?” if the response is “Nothing,” or “I don’t know,” then the advocate may indicate three things they both know the youth needs, such as supporting a child, getting a job, or finishing high school. Then the advocate will ask which of these the youth wants help with first. The YAP advocate visits the family and asks the same question of all family members. Primary focus is on the strengths of all members. These are capitalized upon in meeting the needs of the family. This is the wraparound concept; services and programs embrace the family system to lift it out of dereliction or dysfunction. Housing and jobs might be goals chosen by the family, or substance abuse treatment. Unique to YAP, the family “owns” its program. Driven by their own needs assessment and goals identification, families are empowered to create their own vision of change. At the same time, the youths are held to strict standards and natural consequences that follow poor judgment teach the kids to make better choices.
YAP advocates are hired for their ability to relate to the youth they serve. In Ithaca many of the approximately 15 on staff are African American whose cultural experience matches most of the clientele. Jerame says, “These kids know ‘real,’ they know whether we’re just looking for a paycheck or if we’re in this for them, wholeheartedly.” I ask how many they serve at any one time. He says they are supposed to serve 11 to 13 youths, but most of the time, they have a caseload of about 17. They are expected to serve 20 to 21 families a year, but they actually serve around 37. I ask, “Can you do this?” He responds by showing me the time sheet he and the assistant director completed last week: each lists 52 hours. That pretty well documents “real” and wholehearted commitment.
Jerame explains that YAP is funded by the Department of Social Services with whom they subcontract for preventative services. He says a weekly team meeting gathers together caseworkers, mental health professionals, educators, and others involved with the client families. I ask Jerame how he feels about psychotropic medication. He responds, “It steals the personality.” He adds, “One of my first priorities is to order a medication evalutation.” We have an avid discussion about the kids not being mental cases. Jerame tells me some examples of where these kids come from: mothers who steal from their children to obtain drugs; children who have no food; children who are yanked from their beds at night to do the bidding of parental figures; it’s a sorry account, hard for the average person to relate to. And we agree that the educational system is eliminating programs that would address children’s need to move, such as strenuous gym exercises, music, and crafts.
Jerame tells me YAP has an 88% success rate. Follow-up contacts indicate continuing success, as do frequent visits from alumni of YAP. Sadly, the Ithaca program had to abandon some programs due to funding cuts. One was “Time Banking,” whereby youth could barter services with community members by the hour. This fostered interaction between the community at large and youth who may otherwise have lacked this opportunity to mix with folks outside their own neighborhoods. Another was Tompkins Youth Matters, a project designed to combine community service with leadership opportunities for youth, and it also required a minimum time of parent involvement in the youth’s project. YAP still offers a host of other fine programs. For example, Supported Work locates temporary jobs for youth and sometimes a parent of youth in YAP. Community employers are encouraged to hire youth who have completed employment training. An advocate mentors the worker for the duration of the appointment lasting from 2 to 3 months. This work is a valuable opportunity to provide structure and stability in an environment that may never before have been available to the youth. Besides providing a paycheck, this work also builds an optimistic self-image to enhance future employment opportunities. A touching aside as we walked the hallway past a baby bed was Jerame’s comment that they had held a baby shower for a client who otherwise would not have had items ready for the newborn.
Jerame tells me the Ithaca program operates on a budget of $300,000 a year. The Supported Work paychecks come out of this amount. Amazingly, 37 to 40 families a year are served. And YAP saves the county and state millions of dollars by taking youth out of residential programs that cost from $220 to $1600 per day per youth! All the while YAP is reuniting families and providing opportunities for hundreds of improved lives per year. There can be no doubt that in so doing, YAP is also saving lives.
The literature about YAP tells me there are 125 programs serving 75 counties across 12 states and Washington DC. A staff of 2000 serve 4500 young people and their families at any given time. There are also programs abroad.
Here is their mission statement:
Youth Advocate Program’s mission is to provide individuals that have been, are, or may be subject to compulsory care with the opportunity to develop, contribute, and be valued as assets so that communities can have safe, proven, effective, and economical alternatives to institutional placement.