A collaborative project to better resources and services for children and youth in our communities by improving availability, accessibility, and awareness.
The Missouri Behavioral Health Council (MBHC) is partnering with the Missouri Department of Mental Health (DMH), the Office of State Courts Administrator (OSCA), the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) Children's Division, and the Missouri Juvenile Justice Association (MJJA) to conduct Youth Mapping Workshops in Missouri. A Youth Mapping Workshop brings together a team of local stakeholders and utilizes the Upstream tool in strategic planning to assess available resources, identify gaps/challenges in accessing services, and establish a plan for community change (and ultimately statewide change!) of children’s services. Upstream is a community-based approach that leverages judicial leadership and collaborations with child welfare agencies, state and local public agencies, community-based organizations, and community members to increase access to community-based services, prevent child maltreatment and out-of-home placement, reduce court involvement, and support strong, safe, and healthy families. Consultants will facilitate circuit mappings from January through May 2024. Starting in June, in-state trained facilitators will complete mappings for the remaining circuits.
Our goal is to improve the availability, accessibility, and awareness of resources and services for children and youth in our communities. Statewide systems-level solutions and trends in needs will be included in future Annual Reports to state stakeholders. For more information on Upstream: Upstream | NCSC
The project will provide the following:
- NCSC Consultants
- Facilitator training provided by Upstream.
- Support of local mappings, providing technical assistance, mapping toolkits and supplies, food and beverage for attendees, and A/V or room rental assistance if needed for location (MBHC will facilitate these logistics with the workshop coordinators).
- An Upstream Summit led by NCSC in the final stages to gather representatives from around the state.
- POST certification will be provided for law enforcement.
- Continuing education will be provided for licensed staff.
Our project team will help with the planning and logistics of each workshop (including example documents and templates to use). We have trained facilitators from Upstream who are ready to assist, and we will train another group of facilitators early next year. MBHC will assist in matching your workshop with trained facilitators and providing the support you need to conduct a successful workshop.
For more information about planning an Upstream Youth Mapping Workshop in your county, please contact Daisy Cheek at dcheek@mobhc.org.
