Bringing Communities Together: Sutter-Yuba Mental Health Services
According to the Sutter-Yuba Mental Health Services vision statement, the organization is working toward a day when “the people of Sutter and Yuba Counties are empowered with the tools and support they need to promote strong mental health and resiliency within all of their communities, families and neighborhoods.” One of those tools is the framework of Developmental Assets, says Prevention Services Coordinator John Floe.
By working with schools, churches, nonprofits, and other county agencies, Floe and his colleagues are infusing assets into their prevention and early intervention programs as well as spreading the asset message throughout Sutter and Yuba counties. “We’re informing and educating people on the 40 Developmental Assets. We’re helping them understand how to use resources like Pass It On. We’re giving people ideas about how they can develop assets in individuals, how to mentor children and how to get involved,” explains Floe.
Asset Building in School-Based Mental Health Services in Ohio
Ohio’s Care Team Collaborative is a multi-county initiative that provides individuals, schools, families, and communities with the tools they need to build Developmental Assets in kids. The organization approaches their goal of helping children achieve academic success from many different angles, including school-based mental health and prevention services.
The Care Team’s three-tiered system of care helps schools in four different Ohio counties integrate the asset framework into whole-school prevention, early intervention, and intensive intervention services. Members of the Collaborative assist guidance counselors, social workers, and other school-based providers by familiarizing them with the asset framework and giving them ideas, strategies, and resources they can use in their prevention programs.
Professional Development in Asset Building and Mental Health
What does it take to build Developmental Assets in children suffering from mental illness? That is the question that licensed mental health therapist Jim Still-Pepper has set out to answer with a set of trainings focused on mental illness and the assets.
Developed with Ohio’s Care Team Collaborative, Mental Health ABCs and Normal or Not? are two professional development trainings that focus on teaching teachers, youth workers, and other adults how to build assets in children with mental illnesses.
