Recovery Resources

An important part of recovery is knowing where to go for help. These online resources are useful for connecting…

Drug and Alcohol Rehab Resources and Support

Our mission is to provide support for people who are dealing with substance abuse and addiction. We do this through our comprehensive resources and guides, and connecting people with the right treatment programs.

Comprehensive Guide to Drugs on Campus

College students have greater access to drugs today than they’ve had in the past. With this availability comes the greater risk of students developing abusive habits during their college years.

Addressing Gun Violence in Louisville

July 2020

In our work with Louisville’s youth and young adults who are not in school or employed, CSYA member organizations have collectively walked with thousands of young people impacted by gun violence. These young people, some of our community’s most valuable yet vulnerable, have experienced homelessness, abuse and neglect, educational disruption, and persistent poverty.  Despite their innate capabilities and inspiring goals, many are marginalized by their experiences as children or the structural racism in the schools, courts, and other systems that have “served” them.

The Coalition Supporting Young Adults is focused on understanding and addressing the complex individual and systemic problems marginalized young people face in Louisville that can, and too often do, result in exposure to or involvement in violence.  Guided by the young people themselves, we have collectively identified several actions our community could take to address these issues.

  • Transition Louisville to a “Zero Detention” community, recognizing that young people with out-of-bounds behaviors need services, education, supportive adults, and another chance. We must dismantle the current School to Prison systems that push out and criminalize black and brown students and denies their right to an education.
  • Fund evidence-based programs designed specifically to help marginalized youth such as supportive and transitional housing, academic services, mental health services, mentoring, substance use treatment, career exploration, apprenticeships and other job training opportunities. Involve young people in the process of identifying these programs and evaluating their effectiveness.
  • Create committees on the Louisville Metro Council and the JCPS Board of Education that identify and address the policies and practices that marginalize and criminalize black and brown young people in our community. Ensure these committees use data and the voices of young people to inform their decisions and hold them accountable for ensuring their new policies are followed.
  • Create high-quality educational pathways to a high school diploma for marginalized students and those who are over-age and under-credited. Provide evidence-based supports that address the complex needs of students (flexible schedule, work-learn opportunities, postsecondary and college preparation, life skills development, advisors, and career exploration). 
  • Train Louisville’s law enforcement, court staff, front-line youth workers, program leaders, educators, funders, parents, decision makers and young people about the issues that lead to violence and that result from exposure to violence.

Structural racism and poverty are at the heart of most challenges young people who are impacted by violence face.  Addressing these issues will take a significant shift in thinking about marginalized young people, new policies and practices that recognize the unacceptable costs of leaving even one person behind, and a funding strategy from JCPS, Louisville Metro, and private foundations that demonstrates an unwavering commitment to preparing each young person for their future.

There are many ideas on the table – now is the time to move forward with intention and urgency. There are collective actions Louisville’s service providers, public agencies, educators, leaders, and adult advocates can take to transform the way we assist and advocate for our most vulnerable young people. Agreeing on the actions that are both achievable and effective will continue to be challenging and the Coalition Supporting Young Adults invites all community members – youth and adults – to join us in this important discussion.

Read Courier Journal Article on Gun Violence, July 2020

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Pew Report: Amid coronavirus outbreak, nearly three-in-ten young people are neither working nor in school

Pew Research, July 2020

BY RICHARD FRY AND AMANDA BARROSO

As COVID-19 cases have surged in the United States, young adults face a weakening labor market and an uncertain educational outlook. Between February and June 2020, the share of young adults who are neither enrolled in school nor employed – a measure some refer to as the “disconnection rate” – has more than doubled, according to a new analysis of Census Bureau data by Pew Research Center. Most of the increase is related to job loss among young workers.

At the beginning of 2020, the share of Americans ages 16 to 24 who were “disconnected” from work and school mirrored rates from the previous year. But between March and April, the share jumped significantly, from 12% to 20%. By June 2020, 28% of youths were neither in school nor the workplace.

While not the highest on record, June’s 28% disconnection rate – which translates into 10.3 million young people – is the highest ever observed for the month of June, dating back to 1989 when the data first became available. This trend is one indicator of the difficulties young people are facing as they transition into adulthood during a global pandemic.

Read complete report….

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CSYA’s Strategies for Setting and Achieving Common Goals

The Coalition Supporting Young Adults creates and implements a shared agenda through eight key activities:

  1. Engage Young People as Decision Makers: Create opportunities for impacted youth to tell their stories, identify workable solutions, and develop advocacy and leadership skills. Fully integrate the Social Justice Youth Development Model into the processes used by CSYA to create change.
  2. Establish Collective Accountability: Lead the process of setting community-wide goals and tracking progress in an annual report to the community that includes current resources (program and fiscal map), progress toward benchmarks, indicators of education completion and housing stability, and recommendations for further action.
  3. Develop a Comprehensive Funding Strategy: Develop a cohesive plan that outlines funding priorities based on a fiscal map of current and potential resources committed to OY efforts from public and private, local and national funders. Establish relationships with potential funders and invite collaborative or targeted asks.
  4. Advocate for Policy Change: Identify public and education policies and procedures at local and state levels that inadvertently create barriers for disconnected youth. Mobilize young adults and the boarder community to advocate for changes, clarifications, or additions when needed.
  5. Professional Development: Train CSYA members’ staff on effective strategies for reconnecting young people to education, employment, housing, and other supports. Create opportunities for collaboration between organizations and identify potential partnerships that streamline or expand services.
  6. Expand community awareness of the issues and effective strategies impacting OY through media, speaking engagements, community conversations, and connections with other local, regional, and national initiatives.
  7. Create ongoing cross-agency work groups focused on improving the education, employment, housing, and health & wellness services and systems affecting OY. Membership on each work group include organizational decision-makers, frontline staff, and youth from “anchor” and related organizations.
  8. Promote best practice programs and services such as:
  • Emergency shelters with support to transition to stable housing and employment;
  • New pathways to education attainment for over age/under credit and other nontraditional learners;
  • A transportation navigator system equipped to open access to multiple options;
  • “No Wrong Door” network of services available at nontraditional times (nights, weekends);
  • Training of adults to advocate for access to education;
  • Career exploration and job coaching services;
  • Opportunities to “learn and earn” concurrently;
  • Additional supports for youth and young adults with special education needs, experiences with homelessness, or who have been involved in the child welfare system;
  • Connection to trained adult volunteers serving as anchors in a web of support.
  • Mental health supports, positive youth development, and trauma-informed care.
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Amplifying Youth Voices

Thursday, August 6, 2020
1:00 PM – 2:00 PM EDT

Description

Join us to learn how PeaceCasters, a youth-led program housed within the Peace Education Program, empowers young people in middle and high school to share their stories with the world in order to create change through digital and social media.

Through their groundbreaking Youth Influencers curriculum, they support young leaders to be influencers on social media and in their communities by sharing stories from lived experience, practicing positive communication skills, and building community online and off. Their curriculum is based on three pillars: empowered storytelling, social media for social good, and online conflict resolution. The PeaceCasters program builds on Peace Education’s 37 years of experience training youth and adults to build and sustain positive relationships, bringing these essential skills into digital spaces and onto social media platforms.

Introducing Presenters

Lijah Fosl is a facilitator and program developer who uplifts young people through engaging, creative, and skill-based trainings that are built on a framework of anti-oppression and peer-to-peer leadership. At the Peace Education Program, they train youth and adults in conflict resolution, social media skills, empowered storytelling, peer mediation, and prejudice reduction. They helmed the development of the Youth Influencers curriculum for PeaceCasters, a program they joined at age 13.

Fernanda Scharfenberger, 17, is a Youth Facilitator with PeaceCasters who has steadily evolved as a leader since she joined as a participant in 2015. Fernanda is a powerful storyteller, and as a Youth Facilitator has helped develop our curriculum. She is an incoming Freshman at Centre College and one of the most effective and highly-praised youth activists in Louisville, holding leadership roles with the WE Day Mayor’s Youth Board, US Climate Strike, and the Kentucky Student Environmental Coalition.

Watch the Webinar

Register for the Youth Influencers Camp

Register now for the first-ever VIRTUAL Youth Influencers Camp from PeaceCasters! Where young people come together to share stories, create powerful social media messages, and collaborate online in order to create real social change.

This 3-day virtual camp is for people of middle and high school age who are looking to get involved in movements for change and to use their voice to uplift and inspire others online. You’ll get to play games, practice using social media to interrupt violence and bullying, team up on real media projects, and learn from the stories of other young people who are changing the world through social media.

You’ll also be invited to join our online Discord community, where young leaders from all over the city connect to share calls to action, resolve conflicts peacefully, and help each other make creative media projects. Don’t miss your chance to meet, play and work with other awesome young leaders in Louisville!

This camp is FREE and is hosted in three 90-minute sessions on Zoom from 4:00–5:30 on Wednesday August 19th, Thursday August 20th, and Friday August 21st, 2020. Register now while spots are still open by clicking here!

You can email questions to Program Leader Lijah Fosl at Lijah@PeaceEducationProgram.

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Developing and Demonstrating Anti-racist Practices

Wednesday, July 1
2:00 -3:00 pm

Aishia A. Brown, PhD, University of Louisville
Nikki Thornton, True Up
Lacey McNary, McNary Group

How is racism showing up in your work with youth? Join us as advocates lifting youth voices for equity and resolutions.  There will be time for sharing your experiences, acknowledging where we are as a community, and establishing a vision for where we want to be.

CSYA Statement of Unity: The Coalition Supporting Young Adults is committed to transforming the way Louisville cares for vulnerable youth and young adults. Therefore, we stand in unity with our black and brown communities and allies who are vocalizing concerns and demands for equitable, anti-racist, and humane treatment and advancements. Furthermore, we commit to speaking up and addressing all forms of injustice, brutality, and discrimination. 

Watch the Webinar
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A Decade Undone: Youth Disconnection in the Age of Coronavirus

The Covid-19 pandemic will cause youth disconnection rates to spike dramatically. We estimate that the number of disconnected youth … could swell to almost one-quarter of all young people.

Kristen Lewis, Measure of America, June 2020

Skilled, credentialed, healthy, and engaged young people are essential to our community. However, a national report issued this week by Measure of America reports Louisville/Jefferson Co, KY-IN is 79th among the 100 largest cities in the US in the percentage of youth and young adults who are disconnected, out of school and work due to structural racism, poverty, homelessness, educational disruption, childhood trauma, and related challenges

In the 2019 Measure of America report, Louisville was 71of 100 and was the metro area with the largest racial or ethnic gap for disconnected youth with a black-white gap of 17.6 percentage points.

According to the analysis of Census data by Measure of America, this means approximately 17,100 (12.5%) of all 16- to 24-year-olds in Louisville Metro are considered neither in school nor working because of challenges they face. Additionally, more than 9,800 18 to 24-year olds in Louisville lack a high school diploma. These disruptions in education and employment overshadow the opportunities young people have to learn, to become financially independent, and to fully participate in our community.

The economic, health, and social crises in Louisville and across the US will increase the number of disconnected youth in our community. Overall, young people are more likely to have been working in COVID-affected service and retail sectors and account for nearly half of all workers paid minimum wages or less. They are less likely to have access to health insurance, paid sick leave, or savings to endure a recession. One in five young people in Louisville experienced poverty growing up and now report their incomes provide essential or the only support to the household.

Education and related supports that would be available in other economic crises are now severely disrupted. Students who struggled in high school are cut off not just from learning, encouragement, and social interaction but also disability services, meals, health care, psychological support, and a safe place to spend the day. The number of young people who will not return to school in the fall is unknown but expected to increase to unprecedented levels.

Read the full report from Measure of America

Courier Journal Highlights Community’s Disconnected Youth

Mandy McLaren @mandy_mclaren 

THREAD: I filed this story last Thursday, hours before the first night of protests in Louisville. It was published on Monday, but, understandably, I doubt you saw it. Here’s one big reason why I hope you will still find time to read & share. 

How the coronavirus pandemic multiplies struggles for Louisville’s disconnected youth Without increased support for the out-of-school, out-of-work young adults, experts fear the worst is yet to come.

Last night, while covering the #LouisvilleProtests, I found myself on East Broadway, under an interstate overpass. And while I was doing my best to capture the powerful demonstration that was unfolding, I turned and locked eyes with a young man.

He wasn’t there to protest. He was just walking by. Instantly, I was jolted by the realization: I knew him. 

We met last summer, when I was spending many hours at the YMCA SafePlace drop-in center for homeless youth. Unlike other youths there who knew each other by name & used SafePlace as a spot not just for food and internet, but also social connection, this young man kept to himself.

When I saw him there on Tuesday nights, he typically grabbed a few slices of pizza and sat at a table, always aware of his surroundings. One evening, he asked if it would be OK to sit by me. And little by little, he started talking. 

I wish we weren’t in a pandemic right now and I was in the newsroom so that I could dig out my notebook and truly tell this young man’s story with the detail it deserves. 

What I do remember clearly is that he had been homeless for quite some time — sleeping, often, in junkyard cars, he said. He talked about having to make sure he woke early, getting out of dodge before the sun rose and was caught trespassing. 

He was older than the other youths at SafePlace. He said he had spent a few years in one of the Carolinas — I can’t remember which — where he had a girlfriend, a job and a roof over his head. 

But things with the girlfriend didn’t work out. And he felt the tug of Louisville, the city he grew up in, pulling him back. So he returned. 

He stayed short on details about what followed once he got back, but it was clear that whatever happened, he was making the choice at the time we met to distance himself from his own family. He told me he was trying to get clean. 

I’m not sure the last time I saw him at SafePlace. And at this point, I haven’t been back over there in months, so he could still be stopping by. When I saw him last night, it was clear by his appearance that he was still homeless. 

Even though I was wearing a baseball cap and a mask, it was clear he recognized me, too. Over the protesters’ chants, I tried to explain who I was, to see if he understood our connection. He smiled and nodded. Maybe he knew. Maybe he was just being polite. 

I said something silly like “Are you OK? Are you safe?” and he nodded some more. Then, with no further conversation possible amid the chaos, we waved goodbye and he continued on his way. 

I watched as he, a young black man, walked on, his body directly between the shouting protesters and a line of armed police officers. I wish I knew what he made of it all. 

I’m recounting this to you now because if the pandemic and the protests have reminded me of anything, it’s this: Louisville’s disconnected youth are hurting. And whether they’re shouting their pain at a protest or holding it all in, they are counting on city leaders to help. 

So again, here’s that story you probably missed: How the coronavirus pandemic multiplies struggles for Louisville’s disconnected youth 

Here’s what @louisvillemayor is proposing as a starting point: Mayor Greg Fischer administration seeking $1.5M to support Louisville’s disconnected youth

And here’s the in-depth series I wrote for the @courierjournal last year that brought these important voices to the forefront: Louisville has large number of youth who are out of school or work.

Advocating for Disconnected Youth

We are experiencing unprecedented challenges in Louisville. For the one in ten of our young people who are approaching adulthood disconnected, the challenges are particularly daunting.

Mayor Fischer has proposed in his current budget $1.5 million for the Office of Resilience and Community Services and KentuckianaWorks to help prepare our community’s disconnected and vulnerable youth. The funding, redirected from prior allocations to the now closed Youth Detention Center (total prior budget of $8+ million), will make a significant positive difference.

We need your help to get this budget passed.

Join us in asking Louisville Metro Council to:

  • Fully fund the development of a one-stop employment and education center for reengaging vulnerable youth with a blend of resources from Louisville Metro ($1 million reallocated from the closed Youth Detention Center), partner organizations, and federal and state funds.
  • Allocate Louisville Metro External Agency Funds to programs supporting disconnected youth ($500,000 of funding from the closed Youth Detention Center).

Additional actions Louisville Metro can take today:

  • Task Evolve 502 with allocating 15% of scholarship funds to young people who are not in school.
  • Establish an Education Committee of the Louisville Metro Council.
  • Partner with private funders to invest in dropout prevention both in schools and in the community.
  • Make information on the employment opportunities for youth and young adults accessible. Identify employers hiring through SummerWorks, Academies of Louisville and the Internship Academy.

What you can do:

Download and Share

Advocating-for-OY-May-2020Download

Sample Letter

Dear Council Person:

Skilled, credentialed, healthy, and engaged young people are essential in our effort to restart Louisville’s economy post-COVID. However, a significant group of Louisville’s youth and young adult are not on track. Organization Name calls on city leaders to invest in Louisville’s “disconnected” youth.

In Louisville, approximately 8,900 (10.8%) of all 16- to 24-year-olds are considered disconnected, neither in school nor working due to learning challenges, poverty or homelessness, foster care or juvenile justice involvement, structural racism, mental health problems, or related issues.  Additionally, more than 9,800 18 to 24-year olds in Louisville lack a high school diploma. These disruptions in education and employment overshadow the opportunities young people have to learn, to become financially independent, and to fully participate in our community.

The economic crisis caused by COVID will increase the number of disconnected youth in our community. Overall, young people are more likely to have been working in COVID-affected service and retail sectors and account for nearly half of all workers paid minimum wages or less. They are less likely to have access to health insurance, paid sick leave, or savings to endure a recession. One in five young people in Louisville experienced poverty growing up and now report their incomes provide essential or the only support to the household.

The sudden and unprecedented drop in school and work opportunities for young people is also likely contributing to the recent increase in youth-involved crime in our community.  Closing the Louisville Metro Youth Detention Center was an essential step that now challenges us as a community to develop more effective strategies to help struggling young people get back on track.

While organization name recognizes the unprecedented constraints of both public and private funders, we call all our leaders to take the following specific actions to address Louisville’s growing and critical number of disconnected youth:

  • Fully fund the development of a one-stop employment and education center for reengaging vulnerable youth, with a blend of resources from Louisville Metro ($1 million reallocated from the closed Youth Detention Center), partner organizations, and federal and state funds.
  • Allocate Louisville Metro External Agency Funds to programs supporting disconnected youth ($500,000 of funding from the closed Youth Detention Center).
  • Task Evolve 502 with allocating 15% of scholarship funds to young people who are not in school.
  • Establish an Education Committee of the Louisville Metro Council.
  • Partner with private funders to invest in dropout prevention both in schools and in the community.
  • Make information on the employment opportunities for youth and young adults accessible. Identify employers hiring through SummerWorks, Academies of Louisville and the Internship Academy.

It is the right time to reverse the decades-long dis-investments in youth programs in Louisville and to focus on the growing number of disconnected youth in our community. The economic impact of re-investing far outweighs the cost. Each young person reconnected will generate approximately $105,500 in new tax revenue and will save taxpayers $65,230 in social supports.

 

Advocating-for-OY-May-2020Download

The Promise of Adolescence: Realizing Opportunity for All Youth

Contributors

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education; Health and Medicine Division; Board on Children, Youth, and Families; Committee on the Neurobiological and Socio-behavioral Science of Adolescent Development and Its Applications; Richard J. Bonnie and Emily P. Backes, Editors

Description

Adolescence—beginning with the onset of puberty and ending in the mid-20s—is a critical period of development during which key areas of the brain mature and develop. These changes in brain structure, function, and connectivity mark adolescence as a period of opportunity to discover new vistas, to form relationships with peers and adults, and to explore one’s developing identity. It is also a period of resilience that can ameliorate childhood setbacks and set the stage for a thriving trajectory over the life course.

Because adolescents comprise nearly one-fourth of the entire U.S. population, the nation needs policies and practices that will better leverage these developmental opportunities to harness the promise of adolescence—rather than focusing myopically on containing its risks. This report examines the neurobiological and socio-behavioral science of adolescent development and outlines how this knowledge can be applied, both to promote adolescent well-being, resilience, and development, and to rectify structural barriers and inequalities in opportunity, enabling all adolescents to flourish.

Free Download

Our nation’s youth hold the key to our future well-being. Investing generously in them will create a “more perfect union.”

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