TNOYS TODAYTheir Future is Our Business.

February 2014

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Inside this Issue!

SAVE THE DATE !31st Annual TNOYS Conference

on Services to Youth and Families August 12-15th, 2014

Radisson Hotel Downtown Austin, Texas

Join us once again as we spark innovation, conversation, and rejuvenation!

The annual TNOYS training conference offers a forum for learning and networking on subjects relevant to serving vulnerable youth, their families, and their communities. We place a special emphasis on runaway, homeless, and foster youth as well as programs and initiatives that strengthen youth and families to divert them from – or empower them within – the juvenile justice and child welfare systems. Our conference is designed to provide quality training, information, and skill building on topics of interest to youth workers, clinicians, and community advocates. As always, the conference will include opportunities to explore Austin too!

Come to this conference to make new connections, share solutions, discuss critical issues facing youth and families and the agencies serving them, and reconnect with old friends!!

Policy Participation

• TNOYS 2014 Conference• New Initiative in Houston• Reducing Seclusion and Restraint• New Member Agency Spotlight• Camp Independence• From the TNOYS Blog

TNOYS advocates for funding, policies, and programs that benefit young people who are

struggling, their families, and the organizations that serve them.

We challenge negative perceptions of young people by working in partnership with youth and demonstrating what they are capable of

when people invest in them.

PracticeOur professional and program development services ensure that those on the front lines are fully equipped to meet the complex needs

of the youth and families they serve.

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Creating a Culture of Care (CCC) is a TNOYS initiative to promote trauma-informed care and minimize seclusion and restraint for youth in residential care across Texas. Funded and support-ed by the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health, CCC entered its third year in September. Year Two was a busy one! The TNOYS project team – Lara, Jack, Althea, and Sinclair – consulted with sites on goal setting, problem-solving, staff and leadership development, and data management. We celebrated drops in restraint and seclusion numbers and sparked collaborations across the state. Most notably, we worked closely with local and national experts to develop evaluation strategies to highlight this challenging, but rewarding work on the front lines. As we enter year three, the goal is to create a ripple effect to raise awareness and promote sustainability of CCC well into the future.

“[Our site] has participated in the Hogg/Creating a Culture of Care Project since its

implementation in 2012. We have been very pleased with the outcomes that have resulted from our

participation. Children appear to feel safer. Our staff turnover rate has significantly improved. Our

program continues to move toward a more strengths-based method. The project came at a time when

we really needed it, and the journey has been great.”

- Adminstrator at a particpating RTC

Athletes for Change, Dallas – new in year three!

Autism Treatment Center, Dallas

Brookhaven Youth Ranch, West

Children’s Hope Residential Services, Lubbock

Helping Hand Home for Children, Austin – new in year three!

Hill Country Youth Ranch, Ingram

Meridell Achievement Center, Liberty Hill

Roy Maas’ Youth Alternatives, Boerne

Sinclair Children’s Center, Woodville

TNOYS Announces New Transition-Age Youth Initiative in Harris County

Creating a Culture of Care, Year Two Reflections and Looking Ahead

TNOYS is excited to serve as the coordinator for a new Transition-Age Youth and Families initiative funded by the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health! We were recently awarded a grant to coordinate a strategic learning process for eight organizations to develop plans to engage young adults and their family members in a planning process to improve services and supports for transition-age youth with mental health conditions.

The transition to adulthood is challenging for all young people, and young adults who struggle with mental health conditions face heightened challenges as they work to meet their life goals. TNOYS will work with the eight grantees in Harris County as they work in partnership with transition-age youth and family members to address these challenges through planning for improved services and supports. We will also work with Dr. Marc Fagan at the National Network for Youth in Transition, who will teach us about the Transition to Independence Process (TIP), an evidence-supported practice to promote strong outcomes for youth and young adults with emotional/behavioral difficulties (EBD).

We look forward to watching this initiative unfold and to being part of such critical work in Harris County!

Participating residential treatment center sites

• Baylor College of Medicine• Communities In Schools of Houston• Disability Rights Texas• Easter Seals of Greater Houston• Family Services of Greater Houston• Harris County Protective Services• Houston Department of Health and Human Services• Star of Hope

8 Planning Grantees for the TAYF Initiative:

TNOYS Announces New Transition-Age Youth Initiative in Harris County

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T o celebrate the 30th anniversary of our annual conference, TNOYS raised an already high bar of excellence. The conference, titled “Celebrating our Roots and Blossoms: Planting the Seeds for the Next 30 Years” was held August 13th-16th at the Crowne Plaza Riverwalk hotel in San Antonio, Texas. The theme recognized the importance of celebrating our network’s rich history, as well as building enthusiasm for our future and what we plan to achieve for – and with - young people in Texas. The theme was especially timely given all of the exciting transitions that have occurred at TNOYS over the last year!

The conference included keynote addresses by former University of Texas quarterback and motivational speaker Dan Akers; adolescent brain development expert Frank Kros of the Upside Down Organization; and poet, performance artist, art therapist, and founder of QGUniversity, Queen GodIs. The conference offered 30 workshop sessions that provided training and information on a variety of topics, including trauma informed care, foster care services, ethical decision-making, program evaluation, and more. Other special events and activities included a membership luncheon that celebrated the 30th and was complimentary to all TNOYS members, a roundtable meeting for administrators of emergency shelters, and a Happy Hour at Ocho’s, a hip Cuban restaurant on the Riverwalk.

Many thanks to our staff, Board of Directors, members, sponsors, exhibitors, and others who made our 30th annual conference a success! We look forward to carrying on the same tradition of excellence and excitement next year!

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TNOYS is excited to welcome Angel Reach as a new member of our network. The mission of Angel Reach is “to break the generational cycle of abuse, neglect, and homelessness so that the lives of current and former foster youth can be enhanced.” The agency’s Transitional Living Program provides safe housing, jobs, GED tutoring, legal counsel, and life skills training to youth who have aged out of foster care. Angel Reach’s Kinship Care Program provides support to kinship families, offering assistance with their day-to-day living, including through the provision of food, clothing, furniture, home repairs, emergency needs, information on community resources, referrals to the church community, and caregiver support.

Angel Reach was founded in Conroe, Texas, by foster and adoptive parents Sandra Carpenter and Deborah Zempel. We are excited to have Angel Reach as part of our TNOYS family!

TNOYS Welcomes a New Member Organization:

Angel Reach (Conroe, Texas)

Region 7 Camp Independence“It’s great to see all these young adults taking charge of their lives .” -Elizabeth Flint, TNOYS Program Coordinator

“We are excited to be part of TNOYS and to be able to partner with other agencies making a difference in lives of children!”

TNOYS is contracted by the Texas Department of Family and Protetive Services to provide support in preparing and facilitating two conferences for teenagers who are in foster care in Central Texas.

Last August we hosted “Camp Independence,” an experiential learning event designed to prepare foster youth for adult living. The event was held at Camp Young Judaea in Wimberley, TX, which is where TNOYS also hosts our annual PEAKS camp for youth in foster care to attend over spring break. At this year’s Camp Independence event, youth attended a variety of inter-active workshops focused on topics including cultural diversity, teambuilding, and life skills.

“I learned what to plan for in life!” -Region 7 Camp Independence particpant

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…TNOYS, along with National Association for the Education of Homeless Children

and Youth and the Texas Homeless Education Office, is seeking to add

two questions to the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, which is dis-tributed by the Texas Depart-ment of State Health Services to selected high schools in Texas every other year. The questions will ask survey par-ticipants where they typical-

ly sleep at night and if they have lived away from parents

or guardians in the past 30 days. The questions would be included

in the 2015 survey and the data would be available by the spring of 2016. The data gathered from these questions will provide insight into the scope of youth homeless-ness in Texas and will allow both public and private agencies to respond an develop appropriate services for homeless youth.

A barrier to providing services for homeless youth is the lack of accurate data on the number of young people ages 16-24 who do not thave stable housing. Homeless youth are difficult to count for several reasons. First, youth who are homeless are not part of a service delivery system, such as the foster care system, and they may not engage with social service providers or seek services from a shelter. Also, their living situations may change frequently from living at home, to staying with a friend or family member, to living on the street, making them difficult to track and their situation difficult to capture. Data collection often depends on self-re-ports from youth who are attending school, and they may hesitate to disclose that they are homeless…

From the TNOYS BlogTNOYS launched a new website last year with many new features, including our very own blog! To give you a preview, here is an abbreviated version of one of our latest blog entries:

Uncovering the Scope of Youth Homelessness in Texas

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TNOYS is excited to share our latest initiative to further our long-standing commitment to working in partnership with young people. We have established a fund that is set apart from the rest of our agency budget in order to support the engagement of youth in our work. When donors make a contributiontoTNOYSspecificallyfor“youthengagement,”the funds will be used directly to compensate youth for sharing their time, talent, and gifts with our organization and those we serve.

The Youth Engagement Fund will offer us opportunities to compensate youth, via stipends, for partnering with TNOYS in various capacities, including but not limited to serving on governmental and agency committees; testifying on legislation at the State Capitol; introducing speakers at the TNOYS annual conference; and serving in other professional roles at TNOYS events. Funds from the Youth Engagement Fund will not be used for any purposes other than compensating young people for their time and contributions directly.

We hope you will make a donation to the Youth Engagement Fund today! You can make a donation by visiting our donation page at http://tnoys.org/get-connect-ed/donate-to-tnoys/ and selecting “TNOYS Youth Engagement Fund.” As this initiative grows, we will leverage your donations through grants from foundations that support youth empowerment.

TNOYS Launches Youth Engagement Fund

512-328-6860 info@tnoys.org

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2525 Wallingwood Drive Suite 1503 Austin, TX 78746

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