Youth and Family Services/Overview
 

The PORTALS Youth and Family Services Division offers family-focused services that fully address the needs of members and their children. These services range from special support groups for parents struggling with mental illness and groups for extended family members, to services tailored to the behaviors and issues specific to the developmental stage of teens to young adults.

 

The Youth and Family Services  Division incorporates the agency’s well-established Cal WORKS and Transitional Age Youth (TAY) programs. Members at all three PORTALS’ Clubhouse Recovery and Wellness Centers in Central and South Los Angeles have direct onsite access to the culturally-sensitive and age-appropriate services provided by the CalWORKS and TAY programs. 

 

CalWORKS  serves “welfare-to-work” parents and their families with mental health barriers that can hinder their progress toward attaining individual job goals. Program members receive mental health counseling and support, vocational skills training, and job search and placement assistance, along with ongoing guidance on sustaining competitive employment.

 

Participants in PORTALS’ Transitional Age Youth (TAY) program are teens to young adults (age 16 through 25), many of whom have recently left the foster care system but are not ready for independent living because of a diagnosed mental illness. Professionally trained social workers and counselors help these young people stabilize their emotional and living status, and acquire the life skills needed to become self-sufficient. The program also offers a supportive residence for eligible members.

 

In addition to CalWORKS and TAY programs, the Youth and Family Services Division offers a specialized Community Living Program to families who have acquired the skills to live successfully in their own apartments with minimal assistance. At two apartment complexes in Central and South Los Angeles (developed in collaboration with A Community of Friends, a non-profit affordable housing builder) PORTALS staffers regularly visit member families in residence, to help with ongoing case management and mental health service requirements, and supply any needed independent living skills training.