Fairfax Mentoring Partnership
Support On Suspension Program
Fairfax County After School Network
Youth Suicide and Depression Task Force
(YSAD)
Fairfax Mentoring Partnership
Kristen Brennan, Mentoring Specialist
Kristen.Brennan@fairfaxcounty.gov
703-324-5701
http://www.mentorfairfax.org
The Fairfax Mentoring
Partnership (FMP) supports and expands
the number of quality mentoring programs in the Fairfax community so
that all youth - particularly those considered "at risk" -
have the opportunity to be connected to a positive adult role model.
The FMP brings together over 30 mentor provider organizations to identify
needs and develop strategies for strengthening the capacity of current
mentoring programs.
Support On Suspension Program
Susan Lydick, Initiative Coordinator
Susan.Lydick@fairfaxcounty.gov
703-324-5292
Support on Suspension (SOS) is a model program developed
by FPY for middle and high school students who are out of school due
to suspension. The goal of the SOS initiative is to encourage the development
and availability of safe places, supervised by caring adults, as an
alternative to suspended youth being home alone or out in the community
during school hours. The SOS model is designed to promote positive youth
development while decreasing opportunities for risky behavior by providing
adult supervision. While in SOS students are expected to stay abreast
of their academic work, participate in evidenced-based prevention programming
designed to reduce youth violence, and participate in community service
intended to increase community engagement.
SOS is currently provided at the Culmore Teen Center, 6017 Argyle Drive,
Falls Church, VA 22041 in partnership with Alternative House, the community
based organization administering the program. Nandred Navarro, Director
of Community Outreach for Alternative House (Nandred_Navarro@thealternativehouse.org,
703-820-9039) is the point of contact. A second SOS site is located
at The Reston Community Center, at 2310 Colts Neck Rd. Reston, VA 20191.
The Reston Community Center is the community based organization administering
the program. Elizabeth Harpine, SOS site coordinator, (Elizabeth.Harpine@fairfaxcounty.gov
703-390-6181) is the point of contact at the Reston site.
During the 06-07 school year SOS will integrate a number of improvements
into our site programming. Get Real About Violence, an evidence-based
youth violence prevention curriculum will be launched as well as a pilot
gang prevention curriculum developed for SOS through Project Salva-Ninos
of the Center for Multicultural Human Services (www.cmhs.org).
The curriculum was developed to include topics relevant to prevention
of youth high-risk behavior in general and gang involvement in particular.
During the 06/07 school year FPY will work with the Culmore and Reston
SOS sites to develop meaningful community service opportunities for
students on suspension. Engaging in meaningful community service with
caring adults encourage the development of positive attitudes about
self and community for students on suspension. Ideas for community
service projects, especially projects located in close proximity to
the SOS sites are welcome by the SOS site contacts. Community volunteers
interested in working with youth on such projects or interested in volunteering
to mentor or tutor youth during the SOS day are encouraged to contact
SOS site coordinators.
FPY is working diligently through the SOS task force to find ways to
help communities develop additional SOS sites around the county. Areas
of the county with middle and high schools reporting the highest suspension
rates are the highest priority for identifying resources to open new
SOS sites. Community members are invited to share their input through
the SOS task force by contacting Susan.Lydick@fairfaxcounty.gov
or 703-324-5292.
PROGRAM GUIDELINES:
Youth Suicide and Depression Task Force
(YSAD)
Susan Lydick, Initiative Coordinator
Susan.Lydick@fairfaxcounty.gov
703-324-5292
FPY's Youth Suicide
and Depression Task Force (YSAD) The mission of YSAD is to provide
leadership and advocacy in creating a coordinated system of services
to address untreated youth depression and other mental illnesses as
the major cause of suicide. This task force meets monthly. Parents and
other community members interested in serving on the task force are
encouraged to contact Susan Lydick.
Since its inception in 2004, YSAD has been working to educate the public
about the signs of depression and suicide, particularly as it relates
to youth, and what should be done when these signs are recognized. YSAD
has worked in collaboration with the schools, faith communities, and
community-based organizations to deliver mental health messages to youth
and families. YSAD has used mental health screenings on National Depression
Screening Day, community trainings for parents and other adults who
work with youth, and our annual interfaith mental wellness conference
as opportunities for message delivery.
October 2006 YSAD will sponsor our second annual community mental health
screenings on National Depression Screening Day, October 5, 2006. It
is through our partnerships with Fairfax County Public Schools, county
agencies (including Fairfax County Community and Recreation Services,
and the Fairfax-Falls Church Community Services Board) and other non-profits
such as CrisisLink (www.crisislink.org),
Center for Multicultural Human Services (www.cmhs.org),
and National Counseling Group (www.nationalcounselinggroup.com)
that we are able to provide these free screenings. As they did in 2005,
Fairfax County Community and Recreation Services will provide the sites
for the screenings. Contact us for more information on locations and
times.
For the second year in a row, YSAD is providing the free trainings
to community-based and faith-based groups as a means to educate parents
and other adults on the signs and symptoms of depression and suicide.
Through a Virginia state grant we received last year, FPY was able to
pay CrisisLink to provide these trainings for us. In response to parent
feedback from our trainings last year, YSAD will enlarge the focus of
our community trainings and make them more interactive. This year we
will incorporate information to help parents better determine what mental
health services are most appropriate for their child and help parents
learn to advocate for those services. Furthermore, we will focus more
on what families can do as a whole to increase resiliency and coping
abilities to better prepare for facing life stressors.
YSAD is reaching out to parents, school personnel, faith communities,
county agencies, and other nonprofits who are working with immigrant
families in order to develop culturally appropriate mental health trainings
for Latino and Asian communities in Fairfax County. These immigrant
groups were selected as YSAD’s first response to the obvious gap
in mental health of majority versus minority youth in Fairfax County
as revealed on the 2005 Fairfax County Youth Survey. Survey results
showed that 44.9 % of Hispanic/Latino and 38.8 % of Asian/Pacific Islanders
reported that they were so sad or hopeless for days or weeks at a time
that they stopped doing their usual activities as compared to 28.6 %
of White youth. The level of suicidal thinking among minority youth
was higher as well. Eighteen percent of Hispanic/Latino youth, 15.6
% of Asian/Pacific Islander as compared to 13.2 % of White youth reported
that they had seriously considered suicide.
YSAD was pleased to sponsor a suicide prevention training for FCPS
student service professionals (school psychologists and social workers)
on September 1, 2006. Fran Gatlin, school psychologist for FCPS and
YSAD co-chair, and Lenny Berman, Ph.D., Executive Director for the American
Association of Suicidology (www.suicidology.org)
presented the program. The response from attendees was very positive.
This training will help student services staff to be better prepared
to serve FCPS students when they are experiencing serious distress or
crisis. Attendees will be expected to provide suicide prevention trainings
for their respective school staffs during the 06-07 school years. These
turn around trainings will increase knowledge of FCPS staff and will
help teachers, counselors, principals, and other staff better identify
problems and get help for FCPS students before a crisis situation arises.
In May 2007, YSAD will be holding our third annual interfaith mental
health conference and will be releasing an updated version of our Interfaith
Mental Wellness Toolkit. Over the past two years YSAD has distributed
hundreds of copies of our Interfaith Mental Wellness Toolkit free of
charge to faith communities and mental health professionals. These toolkits
encourage faith communities to work to decrease the stigma of mental
illness, refer families to professional mental health treatment, and
support families experiencing such difficulties.
Conference evaluations from clergy, lay members of faith communities,
and mental health professionals have been overwhelmingly positive for
our free conferences over the past two years. The most recent conference,
Bridging the Gap: An Interfaith Conference on Suicide Prevention and
Mental Wellness, was held at St Matthew’s United Methodist Church,
in Annandale VA on May 4, 2006. The 2005 and 2006 conferences were funded
through FPY funds, in-kind donations from CrisisLink and grant funds
through the VA Dept of Health. In 2007 YSAD will be reaching out to
faith communities and businesses for conference sponsorships that will
move this YSAD initiative toward a sustainable community based conference.
Individuals, faith communities, and businesses interested in supporting
this effort are encouraged to contact us. As we did in May 2006 YSAD
will once again in 2007 be encouraging faith communities to focus attention
on mental heath during May is Mental Health Month. Please click
here to download a copy of the whole Tool Kit, as well as its individual
components.