Youth Empowerment and Healing (Y.E.A.H.)
Due to the prevalence of teen dating violence, and the rising need in our community, the Youth Empowerment and Healing (Y.E.A.H.) team was established to provide a multi-pronged approach to addressing youth at risk.
Prevention
- Bilingual public awareness campaign about violence prevention and community resources targeting North Chicago, Waukegan, and Zion households with children under 18
- Bilingual youth development and education in North Chicago, Waukegan, and Zion elementary, middle and high schools students
- Bilingual in school lessons on healthy relationships, online safety, and decision-making
- Bilingual weekly support and therapeutic groups addressing risk and protection, by focusing on trauma, psychoeducation, life skills, and mentorship
- Professional county-wide conference
Intervention
Bilingual individual or group behavioral health services provided by A Safe Place to identified students in need through individual counseling and intervention.
Mentorship & Gang Prevention
The Street Leaders Program Coordinator provides support to the Y.E.A.H. program while providing mentor services, intervention, mediation, and gang prevention. The Mentor facilitates evening groups and provides workshops to agency staff, school staff, students and parents on gang awareness, activity and street safety.
Street Leaders: Gun Violence Prevention, Intervention, and Mentoring Program
Firearm violence has deeply harmed neighborhoods, communities, and the entire State of Illinois, both through the immediate loss of life and the long-term, harmful effects of trauma experienced by victims, witnesses, and community members.
Through prevention, intervention, mentoring, the Street Leaders program works to raise awareness, reduce gun violence and reclaim public spaces making them free from violence.
Street Outreach
Bilingual Street Outreach staff work to mediate conflicts and prevent retaliatory violence between those who are at risk of committing or becoming the victim of firearm violence. This includes utilizing “credible messengers” with lived experience and community ties to mediate conflicts and disrupt cycles of violence/retaliation.
Hoops 4 Hope Basketball Mentor Program
Hoops 4 Hope is a community-based basketball mentoring program in partnership with Foss Park District, for those residing in North Chicago and Waukegan, IL, using the power of sports, mentorship, and positive relationships to help build confidence, leadership skills, teamwork, and healthy decision-making. Through basketball, participants are encouraged to develop positive goals, strengthen connections with trusted adults and peers, and become leaders in their schools and communities.
By creating safe, supportive spaces for participants to connect and thrive, Hoops 4 Hope promotes positive development, strengthens protective factors, and contributes to community violence prevention by empowering people to become positive leaders and agents of change.
Victim Services Advocate
Bilingual Victim Services helps victims of violence ages 6-24 and their families who reside in North Chicago, IL or Waukegan, IL recover from physical and emotional trauma caused by the violence by empowering them with skills, services, and opportunities. Staff respond to community violence (non-fatal shootings, fatal shootings, other acts of violence, etc., and provide immediate support and advocacy for those impacted by violence at the hospital, accompanying the family at the medical examiner’s office, planning for a funeral, and/or assessing level of crisis to refer to counseling services.
Case Management
Bilingual Case Management is provided to youth and young adults ages 6-24 and their families in North Chicago, IL, and Waukegan, IL. This role ensures high-quality service delivery and plays a critical role in maintaining client continuity and upholding A Safe Place’s mission to create a violence-free society.
Youth Advisory Board (YAB)
- Youth serve on an advisory board and are a representative of their home community as well as A Safe Place organization.
- The mission of the YAB is to implement a youth voice as an area of expertise in the work that is carried out in supporting both the parents and students who participate in the youth mentoring and parent coffee groups.
- The development of the organization’s programs and initiatives will be affected by the ideas and perspective the youth provide.
Parent Coffee Group
This group aims to provide time for parents to talk about youth topics and concerns, encourage involvement of parents in youth struggles, give support to parents of youth experiencing abuse, educate parents on the program and create a safe space for parents to ask questions or voice concerns.
For more information on the Y.E.A.H. program, or to join the YAB contact us at 847-731-7165 ext. 1018 or info@asafeplaceforhelp.org.