Child & Youth Development
The Agency of Human Services envisions a Vermont in which children and youth have access to early childhood care and education services, as well as support during school years, to promote healthy development, resilience, and fulfillment in their lives. AHS delivers supportive programs and services to ensure that all Vermont children and youth can thrive and achieve their potential.
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Why Is This Important?
We envision Vermont as a place where people prosper; children and families are safe and have strong, loving connections; and individuals have the opportunity to fully develop their potential. Research shows that what happens in early childhood lays the foundation for how children's brains develop, how they do at school, and how they interact with the world throughout their lives.
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What We Do
Who We Serve
How We Impact
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What We Do
Strengthening Families Child Care provides grants to 28 community child care programs throughout Vermont to ensure affordable access to high quality comprehensive early care and education and afterschool programs for children and families challenged by economic instability and other environmental risk factors.
Who We Serve
These grants serve:
- Children/families eligible for and participating in the CDD Child Care Financial Assistance Program (at least 25% of enrolled children).
- Children/families who are receiving specialized child care services: including children with an open case with the Family Services Division of the Department for Children and Families (including foster children), children in families participating in Reach Up, refugee children and teen parents.
How We Impact
The following impacts on intended by these grants:
- Documented use of the Center for Social Policy Strengthening Families Program Assessment tool through submission of outcomes and related program plan.
- Continuity of care improves as measured by attendance records and compared to participants in CCFAP including specialized care in other non Strengthening Families programs.
- 70% of parents report positive family experiences (protective factors) as part of their overall experience of having an enrolled child in the program.
Budget Information
|
Strengthening Families Child Care |
FY22 Actual |
FY23 Projected |
FY24 Governor Recommended |
|
Program Budget |
$1,024,282 |
$1,050,000 |
$1,110,000 (not final) |
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What We Do
Specialized Child Care provides vulnerable children and high-risk families with quality child care and specific supports that help meet their needs, strengthen their families, and promote their children's development. Specialized Child Care (SCC) is part of the continuum of coordinated services offered through Children’s Integrated Services (CIS) in Vermont communities.
Who We Serve
SCC offers an array of services and supports to families and children with identified specialized child care needs. Specialized Child Care also supports child care providers and CIS specialists working with families to assure that these children experience success in child care settings that meet their needs. Specialized Child Care providers have made a commitment to providing the best quality care to vulnerable children in their care. They agree to continuous professional development that targets the social emotional development of children to enhance and improve their skills in a safe and supportive environment.
How We Impact
Children often spend eight to ten hours per day in child care. Research shows that when a child care provider is trained in child development and how to support children's growth that children's development is improved and families are strengthened. Specialized Child Care program ensures children that are at higher risk for developmental delays or future education challenges are cared for by providers who are trained.
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The Youth Development Program helps young adults formerly in DCF custody to achieve safe, stable housing through flexible financial assistance. The program is supported by the Department for Children and Families.
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The BARJ program is an arm of the youth justice system that provides support to youth who are at-risk for involvement in the justice system, or have been adjudicated and may or may not be on probation with DCF - Family Services. The primary goal of the BARJ program is to support youth involved in, or at risk of becoming involved in the justice system by providing restorative interventions that reduce or eliminate further involvement in the system.
Who We Serve
BARJ serves youth who are at risk of becoming involved with the justice system, have been adjudicated or truant from school.
How We Impact
The purpose of this contract is to provide restorative services that focus on accountability and competency development of the youth, and community safety, while including the victims and the community in repairing the harm caused. The Balanced and Restorative Justice (BARJ) program is successful because it offers a variety of supports and services that vary depending on the individual needs of the youth and family. The BARJ program works with youth to support them in:
- Building upon their protective factors;
- Building upon their self-regulation in natural settings; and
- Not committing new offenses.
Budget Information
| BARJ |
FY22 Actual |
FY23 Projected |
FY24 Governor Recommended |
|
Program Budget |
$881,016 |
$1,091,897 |
$1,569,051 (not final) |
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What We Do
The vision for Child, Adolescent and Family Services is for all children and families to be emotionally healthy. Our mission is to assure timely delivery of effective prevention, early intervention, and behavioral health treatment and supports through a family-centered system of care for all children and families in Vermont. The Child, Adolescent, and Family Unit at the Department of Mental Health works closely with its network of Designated Agencies and one Specialized Service Agency. This sytem of agencies provide services that such as prevention, early intervention and community consultation, family supports, clinical assessment and treatment, immediate response acute care, and intensive residential placements.
Who We Serve
The Department of Mental Health, under the authority of the Commissioner of Mental Health and contracts with designated public or private non-profit agencies, assures planning and coordination of services “needed to assist children and adolescents with or at risk for a severe emotional disturbance.” However, services are for any child, adolescent, or family who are seeking support.
How We Impact
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The Department of Mental Health is a major partner in the Agency of Human Services Integrating Family Services initiative. IFS brings together different programs and funding streams within AHS to create a single, flexible service delivery and payment system for services and supports to children, youth and their families so that practice and planning better match their needs.
DMH has two participating providers: Counseling Services of Addison County (CSAC) and Northeast Counseling and Support Services (NCSS). These providers work with the Parent Child Centers in their respective regions.
Who We Serve
This initiative provides supports and services to children,
youth and families (prenatal to age 22).
How We Impact
Bringing these programs and funding streams together the
following performance measures focus on whether Vermonters are better off as a
result of this initiative. They do so by looking at the quality and
efficiency of these programs and services.
Budget Information
Budget description: Childrens Community Services to include Emergency Services, Childrens case rates, peer services and Misc. Grants
| FY 22 Actual | FY 23 Budget | FY 24 Draft Governor Recommend |
| $53,176,860 | $58,881,465 | $58,981,662 |
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Success Beyond Six (SB6) has three main programs [1) School-Based Clinical Services (SBC), 2) School-Based Behavioral Services, and 3) Concurrent Education Rehabilitation and Treatment (CERT)] with each program being grounded in trauma-informed practices and evidence-based approaches. Additionally, these programs operate with a focus on working with students in the context of their family, community, and in collaboration with other system partners. Utilizing SB6 programs allows Vermont schools to bring expertise in mental health practice to school-based teams while also providing the additional structure of clinical supervision, administrative support for billing and reporting, ability to link with other state designated agency services, and oversight and accountability to the State.
Who We Serve
SB6 Programs support the following three populations of Vermont students:
- Any students who have mental health issues
- Students in Special Education who have an emotional disability
- Students in Special Education who have intensive needs on the autism spectrum
How We Impact
Overall, the SB6 Programs focus on the outcome measure of whether Vermonters are better off as a result of these programs. The goal of SB6 is to deliver comprehensive mental health supports to Vermont students through evaluating the quality and efficiency of these programs.
Budget Information
DMH Program budget (summary level)
| FY 22 Actual | FY 23 Budget | FY 24 Draft Governor Recommend |
| $55,307,348 | $72,250,289 | $72,250,289 |
