Free family therapy for Staten Islanders among youth services being offered by organization new to borough

New York’s Staten Island Urban adolescents Alliance International Inc. has been providing essential resources to local adolescents and their families in the Bronx and Manhattan for the past 20 years. Now, the organization is in Staten Island.

Staten Island Connect, the organization’s new project, has set up shop at 143 Beach Street in Stapleton.

A recent Youth Service Coordination Program (YSC) funded by the city’s Department of Youth and Community Development is part of Staten Island Connect programming, the organization said in a press statement. Youth ages 12 to 19 who reside in specific NYCHA Houses in West Brighton and Stapleton on the borough’s North Shore are served by the YSC program.

According to a recent report by the Citizen’s Committee for Children, children on Staten Island’s North Shore are more than twice as likely to live in poverty as those on the South Shore, highlighting the borough’s persistent economic inequality. This area has long been regarded as one of the city’s most underserved. According to the research, over one in five North Shore children live in poverty, which is significantly higher than the Mid-Island average of 12.6% and the South Shore rate of 8.7%.

Furthermore, the North Shore has a significantly higher juvenile jail admission rate (1.9 per 1,000 minors) than the South Shore (0.4).

Flyers created by Staten Island Connect state that the YSC program will provide adolescents and their families with a variety of services, such as:

Individual mentoring

Coordination of family services

Activities for pro-social youth groups

Intervention for family crises

Community-based initiatives

Services for case management

Behavioral treatments

Developing abilities for conflict resolution

Plans for individual success

A social worker will provide interventions, a service coordinator will connect them to city resources, and a mentor will offer support and direction. All youth and families will have access to case management services.

According to an Urban Youth Alliance representative, “Our philosophy is based on the belief that all youth have innate strengths upon which they can build.”

Program eligibility

Participants must live in a NYCHA building in the Stapleton Houses or West New Brighton Houses and be between the ages of 12 and 19 in order to enjoy the free resources offered by the YSC program.

Participants also need to have either an open or recently concluded ACS case, a history of police contact or arrest, probation or parole, court engagement, frequent school suspensions, or other recent issues.

Free Functional Family Therapy

For young people aged 11 to 18, Staten Island Connect currently provides a free counseling program called Functional Family Therapy. The program keeps kids safe from violence and legal problems while also assisting families in managing conflict and fostering stronger bonds.

Call Marcus Brown at 929-570-9186 to learn more.