Community Planning Session: Building an Optimal Youth Mental Health System

Community Planning Session: Building an Optimal Youth Mental Health System

Dates: Wednesday, January 14

Time: 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.

Location: NICNE at NIU Rockford, 8500 E State St, Rockford, IL 61108. Light refreshments and coffee will be provided.

Join us as we reveal the results of months of focus group discussions around supporting youth mental health and consider next steps for implementation. Your engagement is critical in this next stage in ensuring a quality, accessible, and equitable Youth Mental Health Systems of Care (YMHSOC) in Winnebago and Boone Counties.

Join an engaging implementation planning session where we will:

• Revisit the top priorities identified by you and other community members to move us towards an accessible, affordable, equitable and high-quality system of mental health care for youth;
• Engage in facilitated planning to determine next steps in implementing these key priorities; and
• Build an engagement plan and shared commitment to implement solutions to ensure an optimal system of care to support youth in our community.
• Learn how you can engage in the work of the Youth Mental Health Systems of Care via the planning group and/or implementation workgroups, COFI parent leadership training, and IRIS, our community-wide integrated referral and intake system.

Thank you for all that you and others in our community have done to drive this work forward. Your past engagement has resulted in the implementation and growth of a shared community-wide referral system (IRIS) to improve referral outcomes, the support of COFI to train local parents in local organizing and leadership to advocate for their children, the development and growth of critical community partnerships to meet community needs, and so many other big and small impacts to improve how we care for our youth and for one another. Please join us as we plan for the next big steps to improve mental health services for youth across Boone and Winnebago Counties.

Who should attend:

• Community members and professionals who care about youth in our community;
• Past participants from the YMHSOC listening sessions or data reveal;
• Individuals or families with experience with youth mental health;
• Youth self-advocates and their families;
• Mental health or human service providers who support youth and their families.

Please join us, and please invite peers and other mental health and human services providers. Finding the right path forward requires strong community engagement.

Goals of this work: The goal of this work is to establish area best practices with a focus on creating an optimal mental health treatment system as a whole, that is affordable, comprehensive, equitable and accessible, for all area youth and their families or caretakers.

Visit www.ymhsoc.org to learn more about the work of the Youth Mental Health System of Care. Email the event organizer, NICNE, at bcallahan@niu.edu with questions.

About the Youth Mental Health System of Care (YMHSOC): Visit www.ymhsoc.org to learn more. In 2018, a community planning team worked in collaboration to submit a grant proposal to the Illinois Children's Healthcare Foundation to improve the youth mental health system of care in Winnebago and Boone Counties. This team included representatives from Rosecrance, Youth Services Network, Children's Home and Aid, National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), Winnebago County Health Department, Rockford Regional Health Council, Crusader Community Health, MercyHealth, Carrie Lynn Children's Center, Rockford Public Schools, Easterseals Metropolitan Chicago, and the 17th Judicial Circuit Court. The team was one of eight finalists but did not receive this grant. The team continued to meet, engage in preplanning work, and pursue future funding opportunities. In 2020, the group received a 4-year planning and implementation grant from the Children's Mental Health Foundation with a targeted focus on deep engagement of people with lived experience, heighted collaboration and coordinated care among partners, and community-based organizations through the creation of a professionals Community of Practice, and capacity building for mental health service providers through workforce development and training. Our mission is to create a coordinated and comprehensive system of care addressing the mental health needs of children and adolescents in Winnebago and Boone Counties. Our vision is to see a comprehensive, coordinated, equitable, and evidence-based youth mental health system of care affordable and accessible for all children, youth, and adults ages 0-21 in Winnebago and Boone Counties.

Background: The Youth Mental Health Systems of Care initiative convened discussions on strengths and challenges, envisioning what an ideal youth mental health system of care would look like. They spent several months collecting input during community conversations and listening sessions about youth mental health services in the community. These sessions helped to identify system gaps and advance efforts to create an efficient, effective, and comprehensive mental health system for youth and young adults.

The 2024 Listening Sessions Report share the results of that process, and the data collected suggests focused planning on 2-3 key areas that will be most impactful in ensuring an optimal system of care.

Past conversations with community members, mental health professionals, and human services organizations include:

• Building An Optimal System: Housing and Wraparound Supports (July 22, 2025) - Ensuring coordinated and comprehensive services and supports that foster stable, adequate, and affordable housing for youth and their families, including adequate inpatient and supportive living services for adolescents.
• Building An Optimal System: Education and Training (June 10, 2025) - Ensuring the community is well-educated about housing concepts and services and resources available to them, ensuring availability of accessible and affordable education and training for families and youth, and ensuring professionals are trained and ready to meet the mental health needs of youth and their families;
• Building An Optimal System: Community Collaboration (May 13, 2025) – Ensuring that services are coordinated and collaborative in their efforts; efficiently assisting families in navigating the system of care instead of expecting them to “figure it out.”;
• YMHSOC Data Reveal & Community Discussion (June 18, 2024) - Between November 2022 and June 2024, the Youth Mental Health Systems of Care (YMHSOC) planning group has led conversations with mental health providers, families with lived experience, and youth to identify the strengths and challenges of our current youth mental health system, and to develop a shared vision of an optimal youth mental health treatment services in our community. This included facilitated conversations listed below, and focus groups across a variety of community sites to reach people with lived experience. Region 1 Planning Council shared a summary and analysis of what we learned from that data, and community members helped to prioritize which issues identified within the data should be addressed first, and which solutions should be prioritized to ensure all families and youth have access to affordable, equitable, and high-quality mental health services for youth.

• Community Support System Framework Analysis: Health and Dental, Income Support, and Housing (November 15, 2023)
• Community Support System Framework Analysis: Protection and Advocacy, Outreach and Identification (August 23, 2023)
• Community Support System Framework Analysis: Rehabilitative Services, Family and Community Supports, and Peer Supports (May 13, 2023)
• Community Support System Framework Analysis: Crisis and In-Patient Services (February 22, 2023)
• Community Support System Framework Analysis: Treatment Services (November 15,2022)

About NICNE: The Northern Illinois Center for Nonprofit Excellence (NICNE) has been strengthening nonprofits since August 2004 by providing capacity building, training, technical assistance, resource support and initiative leadership to nonprofit organizations in northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin. NICNE believes in investing in people and organizations that make communities in our area safer, healthier and more vibrant. We do so by providing training opportunities, which help nonprofits successfully achieve their missions. As the region’s primary resource for nonprofit capacity and movement building, NICNE encourages collaboration and best practices that result in a strong, vibrant nonprofit sector to demonstrating significant social impact. NICNE Mission: Promote, model and grow innovation, excellence and social impact.

Please email questions to CEO Pam Clark Reidenbach at pclark1@niu.edu.