Technical Assistance Partnership Staff to Present with Young Adults at Summer Training Institutes

Ken Martinez, principal researcher with AIR, will present with two young adults, Tyrus Curtis and Carlos Garcia, at the Georgetown Training Institutes in Orlando, Florida. The Training Institutes, taking place this year from July 25-29, is a national event that brings together professionals, policy-makers, youth, and families from around the country to discuss strategies for improving mental health care for children and adolescents.

Curtis and Garcia were involved in systems of care communities, and will share their incredible stories of resilience and identity formation while growing up in difficult circumstances. Specifically, they will discuss their personal journeys, discovering their cultural and sexual identities while addressing mental health challenges.

The System of Care Approach

A system of care is a spectrum of effective, community-based services and supports for youth with, or at risk for, mental health and related challenges and their families. For the past 14 years AIR’s Technical Assistance Partnership (TA Partnership) has provided training and support to more than 200 federally funded grantees. One of the major principles that distinguishes systems of care from other interventions is the inclusion of family and youth “voice and choice.” The voice and choice principle provides youth involved in systems of care and their families an opportunity to actively participate in all aspects of their care, from service planning to evaluation and treatment.

HSD and the TA Partnership

Through the TA Partnership, AIR provides training and technical assistance to communities that serve youth with mental health challenges. It advises community and state systems how to improve service and support delivery to better meet communities’ needs. The personal experiences of youth and young adults is invaluable in helping other youth and young adults successfully navigate the complex maze of systems they are usually involved with, which is why the TA Partnership engages youth in training and technical assistance roles to promote peer learning.

AIR promotes and practices full youth engagement, viewing youth not only as recipients of services, but as partners in designing, planning, training, providing, and evaluating services and systems that affect them. To learn more about the TA Partnership’s efforts to assist systems in engaging youth, please take a moment to browse the Youth Involvement section of their website.