Today the Seattle Human Services Department announced five organizations which will be funded to work on youth mental health issues. The award, totaling over $600,000, seeks to provide outpatient mental health counseling services for African American, Latino, Native American, and Asian/Pacific Islander youth.

The five proposals granted will address mental health counseling and treatment to Seattle youth with mental health disorders or behavioral concerns. These grantees will have a specific focus on providing care for youth on Medicaid or who lack medical coverage for treatment. These awards are funded by City of Seattle General Fund.

Southwest Youth & Family Services was awarded $157,263 to provide onsite individual and family mental health services to Black/African American (including African immigrant), Hispanic/Latino, Native American and Asian/Pacific Islanders, low income, LBGTQ and immigrant and refugee youth. They also plan to provide services to Seattle schools or locations that are accessible and convenient for the youth and their families.

Asian Counseling & Referral Service will provide mental health services to youth attending Franklin, Garfield, Rainier Beach, Cleveland, Roosevelt, West Seattle, Chief Sealth and South Lake High Schools, as well as Alki Kurose, Washington, and Mercer Middle Schools.  Asian Counseling & Referral Service was awarded $142,631 to deliver youth mental health services.

NeighborCare Health was granted $166,305 to continue their work providing culturally appropriate counseling services for youth and their families through school-based health centers. NCH works with schools to identify students in need of health services, including those at risk academically and receives referrals from the school nurse, administration, teachers, guidance counselors, and others.

United Indian of All Tribes Foundation has operated the Labateyah Youth Home in Ballard since 1992 to address the disproportionately high number of American Indian/Alaskan Native homeless youth in our community. They were granted $85,484 to connect youth with services to address their behavioral health needs and incorporate other culturally appropriate therapeutic activities such as drumming, sweat lodges, talking circles, etc that have been shown to be highly effective in addressing the mental health needs of homeless youth.

Therapeutic Health Services practices ‘non-traditional’ alternative methods by providing individual, group and family counseling and intervention, outreach and school and community based counseling sessions in homes, schools and the community. Therapeutic Health Services was awarded $85,484 to implement this work.

Please visit the HSD website to see a full list of funding opportunities.

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The Seattle Human Services Department is one of the largest contributors to Seattle’s safety net. HSD provides $89 million in funding through 450 contracts to nearly 200 agencies supporting Seattle’s most vulnerable residents each year.  The department works closely with its community partners, including other public and nonprofit funders and service providers, to understand current and emerging human service needs, and to create and invest in a comprehensive and integrated regional human services system.