The Youth Mental Health Corps (YMHC) is a collaborative initiative that supports youth mental health in schools and communities while giving young adults on-ramps into behavioral health careers. In partnership with the Schultz Family Foundation, Pinterest, Colorado Behavioral Health Administration, and the Colorado Community College System, the Youth Mental Health Corps will consist of mental health navigators who are trusted young adults serving in select schools and communities.
YMHC’s goals are to:
- Meet youth where they are: in schools, afterschool programs, community health centers, or youth-centered organizations.
- Offer young people interested in addressing our nation’s youth mental health crisis with an opportunity to provide peer support while obtaining quality training, skills, experience, and credentials to start a career in behavioral health.
- Increase the capacity of schools, community-based organizations, community health clinics, and behavioral health organizations to respond to the growing youth mental health crisis and provide support for the most vulnerable youth.
- Share best practices on healthy social media use, digital safety and wellbeing, and online safety with youth, school and community-based organizational staff, parents/care providers, and community members.
Colorado’s Youth Mental Health Corps focuses on two pathways: 1) School-based stackable certification/higher education credit pathway, and 2) Community health worker state certification. Programs participating in the Youth Mental Health Corps initiative are listed below. Interested applicants are encouraged to apply directly through each program’s recruitment links.
Program Partners
- Alpine Achievers
Every year, AmeriCorps members nationwide assemble in Southern Colorado to join Alpine Achievers Initiative’s mission of serving rural youth. As a member, you will be placed at a picturesque site in South-Central Colorado, providing social emotional support to students in both in-school and out-of-school settings. Members may also provide academic interventions and facilitate out-of-school-time programs.
Contact: Brittni Addison, recruiting@alpineachievers.org
Link to member application here!
- City Year
As a City Year AmeriCorps member, your service will focus on coaching and mentoring elementary, middle and/or high school students. You will help these students earn academic success, improve their attendance, learn social-emotional skills, and develop positive behaviors at school. You will plan and monitor individual student progress and work with teachers on whole class instruction, breakout spaces and other in-class student assistance.
Contact: TBD
Link to member application here!
**NOTE** - City Year does not provide program- or region-specific applications. In order to apply for Youth Mental Health Corps positions, potential applicants will need to specify that they are only interested in Denver during the application process.
- Colorado Youth for a Change
When you become a Youth for a Change member, you will support a caseload of high school students in school attendance and engagement, social-emotional and mental health supports, and much more. You will meet with students one-on-one weekly to serve as a trusted adult and connect students to resources within the school and community.
Contact: Vanessa Notman, VanessaN@youthforachange.org
Link to member application here!
- Trailhead Institute
Through the Colorado Public Health Works program, AmeriCorps members serve in regions throughout the state and can pursue certification as a Community Health Worker through a U.S. Department of Labor registered apprenticeship. The program intends to increase the workforce capacity of local public health agencies and community-based organizations. Members who participate in the Youth Mental Health Corps program with Trailhead will focus on coordinating care, providing case management support, informal counseling, and assisting students in navigating health and social service systems.
Contact: Lyndie Kenlon, lkenlon@trailhead.institute
Link to member application here!
- United Way Southwest Colorado
As a TeamUP AmeriCorps member, you will provide safe and enriching programming for students. Programming will focus on enhancing student engagement in school, fostering stronger social connections among peers and students, alleviating family stress by offering a secure and enjoyable environment for students, and providing essential community support.
Contact: Anne Poirot, AnneP@unitedway-swco.org
Link to member application here!