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NEWS from Unity Care Group
Community Partners Newsletter
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Dear Friends,
Unity Care continues to provide the highest quality educational and social programs for our youth and families. We have fifteen different programs that provide a full range of services aimed at ensuring our youth and families develop the skills needed to live healthy and productive lives. Our Community Clinic is just one program that provides truly unique and effective mental health services. Please read below to learn more about our clinical services.
Additionally, we've highlighted our Independent Living Program's participation in the recent extremely successful Independent City event.
Best wishes,
André Chapman
André Chapman
What's Happening at Unity Care
The City of San Jose and Enterprise Helps Unity Care Purchase 5 New Minivans
Unity Care's Community Clinic
In June of 2006, Unity Care was certified by Santa Clara County’s Mental Health Department to open a Short Doyle Community Clinic in partnership with our residential and community educational programs. This is the first step of the agency’s goal of bringing a full array of quality mental health services to our San Jose area youth and families supported by Medi-cal funding. With this step, our clinic was born. Under the clinical direction of David Beckstein LMFT, during 2007, the clinic's services, the number of youth served and the clinical staff all increased.
Contrary to the impression of a “clinic” as a place at 237 Race Street, many different supportive services are available to all types of residents (Level 11 and THPP/THP+ young adults) and in many different types of settings such as residential facilities, schools, or other community venues.
Unity Care’s community clinic staff holds one primary vision - to assist youth as they progress towards greater independence and adult life skills which would enable them to live in the community under a less restrictive environmental context.
Services include:
individual counseling
group and family counseling
case management
assessment and integrated planning
crisis intervention
medication evaluation and support by Dr. Justin Grey, child and adolescent psychiatrist
Here’s an example of the “clinic” in action. Consider the creative work of Katki Molloy (Marriage and Family therapist intern). Her first step would be to research smart dating situations, and to contact Planned Parenthood to develop ideas for the discussion and guest speakers. Then, imagine that a group of 5 talkative and inquisitive young women are gathered with Katki for a 90 minute “jam session”. During this psycho educational meeting Katki facilitates an open discussion with the girls surrounding issues such as good decision making with sexual partners and the dynamics of women and dating. A safe place is created for these young women as they begin to trust and share their needs and choices in their relationships.
Another feature of our Community Clinic’s unique services is allowing youth to develop their own individualized goals. By creating personalized goals youth are able take steps needed to address problems that they are encountering at school or within the group homes, which ensures these youth can maintain positive interactions with others. Clinical staff will partner with various staff at Unity Care to ensure youth are making daily progress towards their goals. As you can see, the Community Clinic ultimately works to ensure youth will be more successful in daily life.
To learn more about our Community Clinic’s services please contact, Jessica White our new Community Outreach Specialist at (408) 971-9822.
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The City of San Jose and Enterprise Rent-A-Car Helps Unity Care Purchase 5 Minivans
Unity Care recently purchased five 2007 Dodge Grand 7 passenger Caravans that will replace five of our older 15-passanger vans. “We are extremely excited about our new Mini-Vans and expect to see a significant savings on gas and maintenance cost, as well as provide a safer and secure ride for our youth” says Tara Hood – CAO.
The purchase was made possible thanks to a generous grant from the City of San Jose's Housing Trust Fund and the collaboration with Enterprise Rent-a-car.
ILP Youth Attend Independent City Seminar
Unity Care’s ILP (Independent Living Program) youth participated in the Independent City event hosted by the Department of Social Services and Non-Profit ILP Providers, held at San Jose City College on Saturday, February 23, 2008. Unity Care and several other service providers helped coordinate various interactive workshops, which focused on Employment, Education and Housing. ILP youth throughout the county participated in engaging activities that were creatively put together by each workshop group.
Unity Care’s youth represented 40% of total participants with many of our youth facilitating some of the workshop topics.
According to Unity Care’s ILP Coordinator Joe Mandingo “This was a great opportunity for our Youth to receive hands-on experience in finding a apartment, obtaining a Drivers License, interviewing for a job or enrolling into College. We know a majority of the Youth who turn 18 and leave Foster Care are not prepared to live on their own, so hopefully this experience will help them navigate life’s challenges”.
Additionally, many of our youth won incentives awards and three of our youth who are currently in college won laptops!
Special thanks to our staff for their coordination in helping to make this event successful.
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Unity Care Group, Inc. |
ph: 408.971.9822 |
