New program to support youth development professionals
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The Indiana Youth Institute is preparing to launch a $20 million initiative designed to support workers at youth services organizations throughout the state.
The Youth Worker Well-Being Project is a collaboration among five intermediary youth-serving organizations that is being funded by a grant from Indianapolis-based Lilly Endowment Inc.
“We spent about a year and a half with focus groups, advisory groups, having the field tell us what are the biggest needs of their employees,” said IYI President and CEO Tami Silverman.
In an interview with Inside INdiana Business, Silverman said supporting workers’ own mental health and well-being will be the first need to address.
“The project is kicking off with virtual mental health services, which will be available to youth workers across the state, unlimited, free of charge,” she said. “They said there’s been a lot on their plate, and that has taken a toll on them. In addition, vicarious trauma has always been an issue in our field.”
The project, which will launch in early 2024, will also feature cohort training and learning, particularly for emerging leaders of color. Silverman said another priority for the initiative will be peer support groups.
“When [workers] having a difficult day, perhaps in their field, they can do some drop-in services to debrief that and have some facilitated conversations,” she said. “There will also be quite a lot of leadership development components built in.”
The project is launching in collaboration with the Indiana Afterschool Network, the IARCA Institute for Excellence, the Indiana Youth Services Association, and the Marion County Commission on Youth.
The IYI says Indiana’s youth workers impact more than 1.5 million children from ages 5-18. They work on afterschool programs, at local YMCAs and Boys and Girls Clubs, at faith-based organizations, or within the juvenile justice system.
Silverman said if youth workers are healthy, that creates a ripple effect for the kids they serve.
“We know that our kids are suffering with increased levels of anxiety and depression. We know that some of our educational attainment rates aren’t exactly where we need them to be in order to make sure that all of our kids are healthy, and well educated and have a path to successful adulthood,” she said. “That takes a lot of support from professionals to get them there, and so we need to make sure those professionals who are guiding our students are themselves well cared for and prepared.”
As part of the initiative, the IYI has hired Cassie Wade to the new role of vice president of youth worker well-being, where she will oversee the project. Wade most recently served as chief operating officer for Lafayette-based not-for-profit Bauer Family Services.
Silverman said the interest in the position was overwhelming.
“We had over 200 qualified applicants,” she said. “Cassie really rose to the top because of the reality that she’s been in the field for a long time. She’s been a youth worker. She’s helped lead a youth-serving organization. So not only does she have general field experience—and a lot of it that’s very deep—but she also has experience in particularly the kind of work that we will be rolling out again across the state.”
The institute said it plans to add three more positions to the Youth Worker Well-Being team this summer.
Silverman said she’s been told the initiative is the first of its kind and scale in the country, and the institute has received a lot of interest and questions from other states and entities.
She said the partners will continue to learn and refine the program as it goes along.